BESIDES the usual pre-match hopes and expectations, Sam Burgess’ main desire for Saturday’s meeting of Warrington Wolves and St Helens is that both sides can keep a full complement of players on the field.

Given the spate of cards handed out both to his team and in the wider game of late, however, he says 12-man scenarios form part of their regular training routines.

Cards are an in-vogue subject around The Wire at the moment, given Paul Vaughan’s controversial sending-off and subsequent three-game ban for head contact at Leigh Leopards on Friday.

Warrington were 4-0 down when Vaughan was dismissed and although they actually edged the scoreboard in the 70 minutes they played a man down, they still succumbed to a 16-12 loss.

It was the third game in a row in which a Warrington player has been shown a card and Burgess admits he has had his arm twisted into making sure his side are prepared for that eventuality.

“We prep every week with 12 men. I wasn’t a fan of doing it but Rich (Marshall, assistant coach) kept challenging me to do it, so it’s part of our practice now.

“We have to know how to manage it and we put our players in that scenario so that when it happens, they know how to get back into some structure.

“We understand it and it’s going to happen, so it’s become part of our preparation.

“Physically, Friday was a really big effort and some of the defensive stuff was really good.

“I still think we didn’t give ourselves the best opportunity with the ball. Even with the adversity of having 12 men, I still think we had enough to get the job done so we’re disappointed with that.

“Their energy is high and we’ve managed the week well, so we’re hoping for 13-on-13 on Saturday.”

A third victory of the year over their neighbours on Saturday would secure at worst a third-place finish for The Wire and with leading pair Wigan Warriors and Hull KR playing each other on Friday night, it would also keep alive their hopes of gatecrashing the top two.

Regardless, their hopes of bypassing the eliminator round of the play-offs are out of their hands, so one could forgive Burgess for prioritising preservation in the coming weeks.

The Wire boss, however, is having none of it and insists making sure their game is in fine fettle for the knockout rounds is the main focus.

“We’ll be full steam ahead from now,” he said.

“We take each week seriously and we’re trying to build our momentum now and get things going in the right direction.

“We’ve not been far off – it’s just a tiny bit of basic skill and execution on the edges that we need to sharpen up so not big fixes.

“Our effort and care for each other out there is still high, which is great to see and that will stand us in good stead going forward.”

Having already beaten their neighbours twice on their own patch this season, Warrington will have the unfamiliar feeling of being comfortable favourites for a home game against St Helens for the first time in many a year.

They will face a Saints side still groaning under the weight of a lengthy list of injuries and suspensions that is scrapping to avoid missing out on the Super League play-offs for the first time ever.

As always, though, Burgess and his players are preparing for the best their opposition can throw at them.

“They’re a really physical side,” he said.

“They’ve been struck by injury and have had a really tough time with that this year, and Wello’s done a great job of trying to manage them through that. It’s certainly not easy.

“We know Saints-Warrington games are always pretty big – we’ve played them twice this year and they’ve been really big, physical games so we’re expecting that.

“We’ve had a look at what the young full-back (Harry) Robertson has been doing for them, and he’s exciting.

“They’ve got a couple of exciting young players coming in but for us, it’s about getting our game right.

“We need to get our discipline and ball control right to give ourselves a chance.”