Deacon 100 per cent fit, says Noble

From the archive, first published Friday 10th Feb 2006.

Paul Deacon makes his long-awaited return for the Bulls on Sunday.

The scrum half is named in the

20-man squad for their Super League opener at Wakefield and Brian Noble has confirmed Deacon will start the match.

It ends a long, frustrating period for the Great Britain ace, who battled back from horrific facial injuries

suffered in the Tri-Nations only to miss last week's World Club Challenge with a hamstring pull.

Leading up to that match, Noble played the guessing game with Wests Tigers regarding the player's availability but privately was never going to risk him.

Deacon - who turns 27 on Monday - is now fully recovered but Aussie Chris McKenna (hamstring) sits out again.

"When you look at the marathon we're heading for, I think it's paid dividends" Noble said about his decision to hold Deacon back at Huddersfield.

"We got away with it, managed to win the game last week and the bonus is Deacs is now back 100 per cent fit.

"Next week McKenna will be the same. He will be 100 per cent, whereas he's probably only 90 per cent now.

"That's the way we have got to treat it this season because I'm a firm believer in keeping your horses healthy. This will be the difference between being competitive at the end of the year and not."

Noble, who has a doubt over Lesley Vainikolo (knee) and adds Dave Halley and Andy Smith to last week's 17, said the number seven is raring to go.

"He has been for about three or four weeks and the unfortunate hamstring in Lanzarote has frustrated him as much as it has frustrated us.

"He's very keen and excited and we are as well. Deacs is very pivotal.

"I have great admiration for what Iestyn (Harris) did for us last week. In essence he ran the show on his own.

"It's nice to have two blokes out there that can do that. They can share the responsibility, they can both lift their heads, they can both see where we want to attack and get the team around the pitch accordingly."

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