Anderson: expecting a battle

St Helens are sweating over the fitness of Sean Long and Maurie Fa’asavalu ahead of Saturday’s Grand Final against Leeds.

The duo missed the qualifying semi-final win over the Rhinos two weeks ago and haven’t been able to train since.

Scrum-half Long has been ruled out of the last three matches due to a hamstring injury while forward Fa’asavalu is struggling, also with a hamstring problem.

Saints coach Daniel Anderson is still hopeful both will be able to play and will leave a decision over their involvement until as late as possible.

Decisions

“Sean and Maurie didn’t play in the play-off game two weeks ago and haven’t trained with us yet,” he told Sky Sports News.

“I’m giving them every opportunity to participate in the game and we’ll make some decisions either Wednesday or Thursday this week.”

“We couldn’t have played last week because we were a bit busted. We also had some boys that were ill with a bug that was going around.”

Although Saints may have won the last meeting with Leeds it is the Rhinos who triumphed in the two regular season games.

Brutal

Anderson is hoping he doesn’t have to sit through another nail-biter like the 10-8 result a fortnight ago, a game he has described as a ‘brutal confrontation’.

“We needed a few days to get over it,” he confessed.

“In my time, and I’ve been here since May 2005, that was the most brutal confrontation of any game that I’ve coached.

“I hope as a coach that it’s not that close but I’ve got a sneaking suspicion there’s not much between us and the spread won’t be that far.”

Popularity: 4% [?]

Tags: Saints, sweat

Posted on December 27th, 2006 by Klaus Roe
Filed under: News, Fun and Games