SOAKING up the atmosphere of a Langtree Park semi final and then watching the Grand Final from the stands at Old Trafford were enough to re-enforce Travis Burns’ view that he had made the right call swapping east Yorkshire for south Lancashire for what could be his last three years as a player.

The 30-year-old moved into town as soon as Hull KR’s season was over, enabling Burns to get his wife and three-year-old son comfortably settled into their new environment.

The added bonus was seeing his now adopted home town in the full throes of Grand Final fever – and that has whetted his appetite to experience some of that for himself.

Burns makes no bones about it – he left Rovers where he was settled and important cog within the team in order to try and add some silverware.

And of course it helped also that he was going to be re-united with his friend and former Penrith Panthers teammate Luke Walsh, with whom he spoke before making the leap west.

Burns said: “Me and Luke are great friends and we have played a lot of football together and him being at Saints was one of the big reasons for coming here.

“He is, in my opinion, the best half in Super League.

"He was unlucky with injury last season but, if Saints can get a full season out of Luke, then he is going to take some beating for the top honours at the end of the year because he is one of the best halves Super League has had in a long while.”

Having been in town since September, Burns has settled in quite nicely – and has slotted in seamlessly to the new training regime.

Although he was enlisted as one of the club’s new kit catalogue models, Burns now just want to get out there and pull on the red vee for real.

“St Helens has been treating me well so far. We are deep into pre-season and have a couple of more weeks and then we get a Christmas break, but it has been a tough programme so far.

“It was a big decision to move over to St Helens – Hull KR had been very good to me and my family but it was the right time in my career to move on.

“I feel that we have a great chance of winning silverware here at the club and that is probably one of the main reasons I came here.

“It is a great squad and fine coaching staff and a club with a lot of history. I wanted to be part of that and hopefully help the club build on the success they had last year."

He has already had it drummed into him from fans he has spoken to, the former coach and numerous ex-players, that Saints set a high benchmark.

But that is something that motivates Burns.

“That is another reason why I wanted to come and when I was first speaking to Keiron Cunningham and Nathan Brown about coming here, it was a pretty strong feeling that they do not accept losing and mediocre performances.

“I wanted to come here and test myself in a squad that has a big chance of winning trophies.”

“I moved here early to get my three-year-old settled into a good nursery.

“It meant I could start pre-season training without worrying about all that so it was probably for the best – and my son and wife are both happy too. If your family are happy at home it makes it easy to come training.

“I was lucky enough to be over here watching for the semi-final and was in the stands for the Grand Final. It was a great game to watch and sample that atmosphere and hopefully that is something I can find out for myself," he said