Preview: St
Helens v Wigan (Round 9)

St Helens winger Francis Meli has been ruled out of Friday?s engage Super League derby showdown with beleaguered Wigan after sustaining an ankle injury.

The close-season recruit from the New Zealand Warriors has suffered torn ankle ligaments and is expected to miss the next six games, starting with visit of the bottom side on Good Friday.

Coach Anderson is hopeful the Kiwi international will return in time for the Challenge Cup clash with Bradford at the end of May and has drafted Ian Hardman into his 20-man squad to deputise for the absent Meli.

Prop forward Jason Cayless is available after overcoming a bout of illness as Saints bid to maintain their 100% start to the season and consolidate their position at the Super League summit.

?Francis tore his ankle ligaments last week and we?re hopeful he will be back for the Bradford game. I don?t envisage he will play before then,? said Anderson.

?Ian will come in for Francis and Jason comes straight into the starting line-up, so there will be obviously some selection dilemmas again for me.?

After an injury-hampered start his Saints career, off-season signing Cayless is relishing the prospect of playing Wigan, who today sacked coach Ian Millward after losing seven of their opening eight games.

Cayless, though, insists form will count for little in Friday?s clash.

?It?s always good to test yourself against good players and Wigan are a bit down on the floor at the moment, but I?m sure being a derby they will be up for up,? said Cayless, signed from Sydney Roosters during the winter.

?We?re expecting a sell-out so there should a great atmosphere and these are the type of games you want to play in.?

The New Zealand international added: ?I know a few of the lads at Wigan, so that makes it more interesting. I know Bryan Fletcher from back home and Iafeta Palea?aesina and a few others and I?ve been out for dinner recently with a few of the Kiwi boys.?

After starting the hectic Easter period against under-pressure Wigan, St Helens face the prospect of a gruelling trip to play Catalans Dragons before taking on Salford on Friday week.

With three games in the space of seven days looming, Anderson has stressed the importance of squad rotation at Knowsley Road and knows the triple-header of fixtures can heavily affect league positions.

?We?ve got a good squad at the moment and we will be having a rotation over the three games,? added Anderson.

?The next seven days are a daunting prospect. Me as a coach, I find it unbelievably tough. This is a contact sport and quite a brutal, tough competition we play in.

?The concept for me is that with six competition points up for grabs the competition table can be vastly different between Thursday morning this week and Sunday afternoon next week.?

St Helens v Wigan Warriors, Knowsley Road, Friday April 14 2006

St Helens 18-man squad: Wellens, Gardner, Lyon, Talau, Pryce, Long, Cunningham, Cayless, Wilkin, Sculthorpe, Roby, Bennett, Hooper, P. Anderson, V. Anderson, Graham, Hardman, Fa'asavalu.

Wigan 18-man squad: Ashton, Brown, Dallas, Godwin, Goulding, Hargreaves, Higham, James, Jonkers, Moran, O'Carroll, O'Loughlin, Orr, Richards, Seu Seu, Tomkins, Wilkes, Vaealiki.

Referee: K Kirkpatrick