St Helens boss Kristian Woolf will look to make the most of a week out of action with a first mental and physical refresher of the season.
Having played every week since round one of the Super League season, the coming fortnight presents a chance for Saints to take some time away, as well as bring some key players back into contention.
It may be a break they would rather not have – it means either Huddersfield Giants or Wigan Warriors will take their Challenge Cup trophy on Saturday – but Woolf will take the positives.
“We’ll give the players a good little break and some time away from footy,” said Woolf, whose side remained top of the league table after signing off last week with a narrow victory at Warrington Wolves.
“It’s a very long season with a lot of games and very few breaks. It’s important that, when we get the opportunity, we do give them a good break.
“With bumps and bruises, the breaks of course always come at a good time from that point of view, but the mental freshener is the most important thing.”
They will have two players back in the mix for selection after difficult campaigns for each so far.
Regan Grace missed the start of the year with a bicep issue and returned against Whitehaven in the Challenge Cup only to suffer a hamstring injury which has kept the winger sidelined since.
“It’s been a little more significant an injury than what was diagnosed,” said Woolf of Grace.
“It’s been really important to give him that time to get right and we do the work he needs to make sure he’s bullet-proofed before he comes back. Re-injuring him wouldn’t be good for us or him either.”
That was a lesson learned from the misfortune of Will Hopoate, the other star set to return when Saints head to Toulouse on Saturday week.
The centre has only played five games since signing ahead of this year, struggling first with a rib injury and then struggling to overcome hamstring problems.
Woolf said of Hopoate: “He’s had bad luck and we’ve had to learn from our own errors there too. The last injury was no different to the first one.
“We would have had him coming back to play (last week) but we’ve had to make sure we don’t make the same mistake twice.
“We’ll know that when we throw him out there, the risk of re-injury is very small, and he’ll have a good opportunity to do what he came over here wanting to do, which is make an impact and be a real player in this team.”
Woolf has also hinted that there could be some good news to come for Saints fans with “some movement in terms of retention” ready to be announced.
Stars including Grace, Konrad Hurrell, Matty Lees, Sione Mata’utia, Louis McCarthy-Scarsbrook and Agnatius Paasi are currently without a deal for next season.
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