Super League match preview: St Helens v Warrington Wolves
Warrington will be hoping to return to winning ways against a Saints side buoyed by their away victory at Leeds.
Last Updated: 25/05/13 5:55pm
While Tony Smith's Wolves were being undone on Friday night Nathan Brown's Saints proved a point with a superb, come-from-behind victory against the champions at Headingley.
St Helens atoned for last year's play-off semi-final defeat to the Wolves in March with a 22-10 success at the Halliwell Jones Stadium, this coming after Warrington claimed a remarkable 36-18 win that ended Saints' season in 2012.
The teams have never met at Magic Weekend but both have positive records at the event. Saints have won three of their six games, drawing once while the Wolves have four victories.
Experienced full-back Paul Wellens sits out the game after picking up an injury in Monday's win at Leeds. Carl Forster and Paul Clough are called up to Brown's 19-man squad with Joe Greenwood also missing out.
Lance Hohaia returns to the squad after injury but hooker James Roby is not 100 per cent fit so has not been risked.
Difficult task
"Warrington have been playing really well and are always hard to beat," Brown told the club's official website. "They have their strengths but we are putting ourselves back together.
"We need to focus on tidying up our own areas, getting our backyard in order and building combinations."
Veteran forward Adrian Morley could return for the Wolves after making his comeback on dual registration for the Swinton Lions last week.
Warrington remain without Ben Harrison, Chris Bridge and Brett Hodgson while stand-off Lee Briers and full-back Stefan Ratchford both took heavy knocks in the home defeat to Hull FC.
"There's a lot of feeling between the two sets of fans and we'll be out there doing our best to make the Warrington fans smile by the end of the fixture but we've also got a healthy respect for St Helens and what they can do," Smith told the club's official website.
"They showed against Leeds on Monday night what they are capable of. I know they are going through a bit of a re-build but they've got a lot of young enthusiastic players as well as some experienced players, and some more coming back too, so we'll be respectful and wary of them."
St Helens: Gardner, Turner, Soliola, Hohaia, Perry, McCarthy-Scarsbrook, Puletua, Wilkin, Manu, Laffranchi, Clough, Jones, Makinson, Forster, Ashe, Walmsley, Percival, Thompson, Howarth.
Warrington Wolves: Atkins, Briers, Carvell, Cooper, Currie, Grix, Higham, Hill, J. Monaghan, M. Monaghan, Morley, Myler, O'Brien, Ratchford, C. Riley, Waterhouse, Westwood, Williams, Wood.