STEFAN Ratchford says he and his Warrington Wolves teammates have every confidence in whoever fills Blake Austin’s boots in tomorrow’s Challenge Cup Final.

After weeks of “will he, won’t he” speculation, the Australian stand-off was officially ruled out of the clash with St Helens after this afternoon’s captain’s run at Wembley Stadium.

Ratchford was mentioned by Price as one of the options for the stand-off position along with Harvey Livett, Ben Currie and Jack Hughes.

> Price rules Austin out of Challenge Cup Final> Wire's Wembley training session in pictures

He would not confirm whether he would be moving from his regular position at full-back but insists whoever takes Austin’s place will be raring to go.

“Blake is a quality player and has been brilliant for us this year, but we’ve got every confidence in anyone who comes into the team,” he said.

“Although we’re going to miss him, there’s a lot of players who are eager to step into his shoes.

“We’ve got players who can adapt for different positions and can pop in here and there.

“We’ve got our plan in place and ready to go.

“I don’t think it takes a lot of motivation in these types of games.

“If you need motivation for playing at Wembley Stadium, you’re in the game for the wrong thing.

“I know everybody says it, but we have had a good week.

“We haven’t been the best in the league but that all goes out of the window now.”

Warrington Guardian:

Stefan Ratchford chats to the Warrington Guardian's Matt Turner at Wembley. Picture by Mike Boden

Ratchford is somewhat of a Wembley veteran – tomorrow will be the fourth time he has played at the national stadium.

He was a Challenge Cup winner with The Wire in 2012 and he says they are not satisfied just to have made it this far.

“I’m lucky enough that this is my fourth time playing here but it doesn’t get any less spectacular,” he said.

“It was scary how good and exciting it was the first time.

“It was nice to win it but we’ve not followed that success up in recent years.

“We’re not happy just to be here as a club.

“There’s only one way to be leaving this stadium and that’s as winners and we’ll be going all out to do that tomorrow.”

With temperatures expected to hit 30 degrees Celsius come kick-off time, many believe The Wire’s best chance of victory will be slowing the game down as much as possible.

Saints are known to favour a fast game, but Ratchford insists they can match them in that department.

“It’s about completions and where we finish our sets,” he said.

“That’s the case in any game but even more so in games like this.

“Saints are probably the best at doing that. We’ve shown it in patches but we’ve not done it over 80 minutes yet.

“Tomorrow wouldn’t be a bad time to start.

“We feel we’re a pretty fit team. We feel that if we get a roll on, we can play quick with the best of them.

“You’ve got to get a feel for how the game is going. If we’re on the back foot, we’ll be looking to find the line and I’m sure they will be the same.”