St Helens coach Keiron Cunningham has said he believes common sense has prevailed following the decision to cancel England’s much-maligned pre-season training camp in Dubai.
Cunningham was one of the first people to publicly criticise the plan to take a group of England players to Dubai on a 12-day trip, with the Saints coach set to lose key duo Jonny Lomax and Mark Percival for a significant part of pre-season.
However, the RFL announced that the plans had eventually been scrapped – and Cunningham said he is delighted to be able to spend more time with Lomax and Percival – who will play in Sunday’s pre-season friendly against Widnes.
“They won’t play large minutes, but they will play,” Cunningham told TotalRL.
“It’s been an absolute luxury to have them with us – and common sense prevails, doesn’t it. I think enough has been said on the situation but seriously, common sense has shone through. We’ve got a long, arduous season ahead of us in Super League and let’s say the cart was in front of the horse on that one.”
The game against Denis Betts’ Vikings on Sunday is St Helens’ first of pre-season – and Cunningham has promised to start with a strong side before blooding a number of the club’s youngsters as the game goes on.
“We can’t wait for it to get going. It’s been so long now has pre-season that it almost feels like it was back in the neanderthal days with all the gloom, the mud and the rain.
“It’s long days where you’re up early and the boys are being pushed to real limits, and now there’s light at the end of the tunnel. We’re itching to go too; once you get Christmas out of the way you know it’s almost time to go.
“We’re going well in training and it’s good to get a gauge of where we’re at. We don’t want to break any pots this weekend but we’ll start with a strong squad and have a look at some combinations and see how things go before we filter in some of the younger lads. Training is great but there’s no replication for pulling that Saints shirt on for the first time.”
