SPORTING rivalries don’t get any more intense than Saints v Wigan so Sunday’s pre-season match is just what the coaches have ordered to bring them up to speed ahead of the new look Super League XX.

The Oxford English Dictionary lists the word friendly as ‘a game not forming part of a serious competition’ but Sunday’s clash will make nonsense of that definition.

And with it being the first meeting between the sides since October’s Grand Final clash will almost certainly have that extra bit of crackle.

Saints boss Keiron Cunningham believes the clash is an important part of the team’s build up – and has suggested it could become a permanent fixture long after the demise of the Boxing Day challenge matches which only survived two years into Super League.

Cunningham said: “We played it in a testimonial game last year and it was an interesting fixture.

“Although you can’t replicate what you get in Super League – the physicality in that game was the closest you get to a regular round – that was a testimonial and they were knocking seven bells out of each other.

“We might make it an annual thing.

“I would like to think it is something we can stick with to get our game right and ready.”

Given that the Ben Flower punch on Lance Hohaia is still making national newspaper headlines, it is inevitable that that controversy will still rumble on.

Cunningham does not appear overly bothered that the incident and subsequent coverage of it overshadowed Saints’ against-the-odds achievement in lifting the title.

“It was always going to be that way with what happened. We went into that game as massive underdogs and came out of it underdogs. We were not bothered – we picked the title up.

“For us to make the Grand Final – in those circumstances with all those young guys – was an achievement and I would imagine no other club in our situation doing that,” he said.

Cunningham has confirmed that he will be going with a smaller squad than last week for this encounter than he did last week when 26 players were used.

He anticipates a matchday squad of 20/21 for this Sunday's game, which kicks off at 3pm.