sean long

SAINTS starlet Kyle Eastmond will get another test of his Super League mettle when he he comes up against his old master in the opening game of the season. Eastmond, who was this week handed the number seven jersey, will come face to face with previous incumbent Sean Long in the first game of 2010 on Saturday, February 6. It promises to be a mouthwatering tussle - as much as home fans will find it strange to see Long wearing another club's colours.  

Saints have allocated the prop forward his old No.8 jersey instead of Jason Cayless who returned to Australia at the conclusion of the 2009 campaign. New boy Sia Soliola takes the No.4 shirt – last worn during Super League X111 by fellow centre Willie Talau, now at Salford. Tony Puletua has been handed the No.11 jersey and Scott Moore given the former's No.16 top, while Kyle Eastmond will don the coveted No.7 jersey in place of Sean Long, now at Hull FC.  

Danny McGUIRE insists champions Leeds Rhinos haven't lost their appetite for more titles - despite three successive engage Super League Grand Final wins. Brian McClennan's recordbreakers hit the road to Old Trafford 2010 with a trip to Wrexham on January 28 to tackle Celtic Crusaders. And stand-off McGuire, overlooked for England's final two games in the Gillette Four Nations, said: "Once you get back into pre-season and get the buzz, you get the hunger to go and win things again.

I couldn't have wished for a better place to make my debut, especially as I know every blade of grass on the pitch   -Sean Long

 

Wigan and St Helens will launch their 2010 engage Super League campaigns by welcoming back familiar faces. Round one of next year's competition will see Wigan host former coach Brian Noble's Crusaders side while St Helens legend Sean Long returns to his old club with Hull FC. The games are among the standout fixtures on the opening weekend of February 5-7, although by then Crusaders and three other clubs will actually already have played.  

The Reporter understands an offer is already on the table but due to the Four Nations tournament, in which 20-year-old Eastmond emerged as a star in the making, talks were put on the back burner. Now they are set to resume and hopefully will be resolved to the satisfaction of both parties. Speaking on the eve of England's Four National Final clash against Australia at Elland Road, Leeds, the Oldham-born utility back, who has been at St Helens since he was 13, revealed: "We are hoping to get something  

Rising England star Kyle Eastmond was officially named as the successor to Sean Long last night - and immediately tipped to become a sensation. The 20-year-old, one of the revelations in England's Four Nations campaign, has been handed the No.7 jersey in St Helens' new squad list. Eastmond is earmarked to fill the scrum-half boots of Long, who has joined Hull. "He's played excellently at centre but I'd rather have him in the middle of the park where he can get his hands on the ball a bit more," said

He's played excellently at centre but I'd rather have him in the middle of the park where he can get his hands on the ball a bit more   -Kyle Eastmond

 

England prodigy Kyle Eastmond is tipped to go far as the officially named successor to scrum-half Sean Long at St Helens. The rising star, who burst onto the international scene during England's Four Nations campaign, was allocated the number seven jersey on Saints' new squad list. The versatile 20-year-old has played in every back position for Saints this season and appeared at centre in the Grand Final against Leeds, but has been chosen to fill Long's scrum-half boots following his departure to Hull  

England's hopes of success in tonight's Gillette Four Nations final rest with two players who could not even get in their club sides at the start of the season.  

BBC Radio 5 live sports extra will be at Wigan's DW Stadium on Saturday for England's eagerly-anticipated Four Nations game against Australia.  

Those three rousing rugby league occasions had a few things in common which have been all too rare in recent years: they were all at Wembley; they each involved British victories over southern hemisphere opposition; and they took place on Saturday afternoons in front of a terrestrial television audience.