We must be ready for Rhinos charge.
Byline: Ian MillwardSUPER LEAGUE is really getting to the business end of the season.
There is just one round of regular season games left to play and, unless Bradford Bulls slip up against Leeds Rhinos on Saturday night, the top five positions are all sorted out.
Any hopes we at Saints had of finishing third ended when we were beaten by Leeds last Friday so that honour will go to Hull Sharks, with ourselves in fourth and Leeds in fifth.
Only the top two positions are still to be decided and even if Wigan beat us at the JJB Stadium on Friday the Warriors will be relying on Leeds to do them a favour at Headingley.
We have now got to spent some time looking forward to our rematch in the play-offs with the Rhinos a week on Friday so Saints fans should not read too much into whatever happens against Wigan.
There will be players rested as we prepare as best we can for that vital sudden death clash.
Before we played Brisbane Broncos in the World Club Championship we went to Lanzarote for some warm weather training.
While we were there we set ourselves a series of goals.
Firstly we wanted to beat Brisbane, then we wanted to win the Challenge Cup and then we wanted to finish in the top five.
We have achieved all those things and I would like to say that it has been a tremendous effort by our players to do so with the number of injuries we have had throughout the season.
But now is not a time for reflection - it is a time for setting new goals, new challenges for individuals and for the team as a whole.
It isn't going to be easy because even now we have Sonny Nickle on report for an incident during the Leeds game and we are still waiting to see the extent of David Fairleigh's shoulder injury.
It's like someone somewhere is trying to find other ways of testing us.
But I can assure all our fans that when it comes around to our semi-final against Leeds we will be ready.
The supporters will have a big part to play on that night and they know as well as the players what a special few weeks the semifinals can be.
I am confident we will beat Leeds to reach the next stage and I still believe we will be running out in the final at Old Trafford next month.
CAPTION(S):
SONNY NICKLE: On report for an incident during the Leeds game
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| Title Annotation: | Sport |
|---|---|
| Publication: | Liverpool Echo (Liverpool, England) |
| Date: | Sep 11, 2001 |
| Words: | 429 |
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| Next Article: | Promotion fight down to the wire; Cheshire County League. |