NEW Aussie recruits Darren Albert and Darren Britt will make their Saints debuts in an almost full strength line-up for Monday night's friendly against Super League newcomers Widnes Vikings.

And mercurial scrum half Sean Long will make his first appearance in a Saints' jersey since having surgery on a knee injury sustained at Huddersfield in May 2001.

Pumped

Saints coach Ian Millward said: "Sean is very pumped up for this one. He can't wait - he has been waiting for this for a long time. He said it is the most excited he has been for a friendly.

"It is great to have him back because he gives us so much. He is so enthusiastic and if we had had him late last year we would have finished higher than third.

"His pace, attack and kicking are three vital ingredients. Plus he is very good friends with Keiron Cunningham, Paul Sculthorpe and Tommy Martin and they all work very well together.

"The chemistry on the park was definitely out of whack without him although the rest of the guys did perform heroics in the face of our injury situation. No other club could have done what we did last year with those injuries."

Millward has picked his strongest available 13 for the Widnes friendly at Knowsley Road, kick-off 7.30pm.

The only injury free star names who will sit the game out are Barry Ward and Sonny Nickle, who have three-match and five-match suspensions to serve respectively.

Millward said: "The Widnes game is a pretty important trial in advance of the Challenge Cup. That is why we have picked our strongest team.

"We want to see where we are at before we go into the cup and so the players are taking the game very seriously."

Saints line-up: Wellens; Albert, Hoppe, Gleeson, Stewart; Martyn, Long; Britt, Cunningham, Shiels, Joynt, Jonkers, Sculthorpe. Subs: Edmondson, Higham, West, Kirkpatrick, Bennett, Stankevitch, Gardner.

Saints first team squad returned to England on Sunday night after an extremely productive training week in Marbella.

Millward said: "It was really important for us because it was the first week back for our three Great Britain players - Chris Joynt, Sculthorpe and Paul Wellens.

"Joynt looks fresh, Sculthorpe is jumping out of his skin and Wellens is very excited after signing his new four-year contract.

"They were a little bit off the pace but the week helped fast track them, as it did the three new boys from Australia."

Snapped

Meanwhile, centre Paul Newlove is making a steady recovery from a snapped Achilles' but Millward is determined not to rush him back into action.

He said: "We are happy with his progress, he is going really well. But I am not sure when he will be ready to return. It is a week-to-week proposition.

"I am really looking forward to him coming back. However, we don't want to rush him because he is pretty vital to us and it is a long season."