Challenge Cup Final: Drew keen to make a Giant impression

Australian the crucial figure against the best team in the country

Although Huddersfield will be sweating this week over the fitness of their captain, Chris Thorman, for Saturday's Powergen Challenge Cup final against St Helens, the man they have really needed to wrap in cotton wool is an Australian whose chequered career has blossomed this year.

Brad Drew missed a game for the first time this season at Wigan on Friday night, but he is confident that he will be fit in time for the Twickenham showpiece. That is reassuring for the Giants, because even more than Thorman, even more even than the inspired recruitment of the New Zealand legend Robbie Paul, Drew is the man who has set the tone for the team this season.

"I have been a bit tight in the calf muscles, but it [missing Friday night's match] was more precautionary than anything," he says. "I was pretty disappointed, but that was just a personal thing about not wanting to miss a game all season."

That is the way Drew has played at hooker for Hudders-field this year - like a man who cannot bear to be out of the action for a moment. Paul describes Drew as "an angry little man who drives us around the field and never shuts up for a minute", and the Australian accepts that as a compliment. "It's something that comes naturally to you as you get older. You take more responsibility for organising other people," he says.

Drew, who will be 31 the day before the final, started his career with eight years at his local club in Penrith, sandwiched between Sydney and the Blue Mountains. Until this year, his highlight was the 2001 season at Parramatta, when he was part of a side who battled their way through to the Grand Final before losing to the Newcastle Knights.

Alongside him that day was a player who represents one of St Helens' main threats to the Giants on Saturday: Jamie Lyon. Lyon was only 19 and in his first full season, but Drew recalls that he already had many of the skills that have tormented British def-ences for the past two seasons.

"He did some amazing things that year. He was brilliant. It was a shame that he almost finished with the game when he did, and I'm happy for him that he has found his feet over here. It's just good to see him playing the game again."

Drew would not be human if he did not harbour a hope that Lyon fails to play the game quite as devastatingly as he is capable of on Saturday. "We keep in touch and we have both spoken about losing that Grand Final in 2001. One of us is going to come away with a smile on his face this time - and I've told him he has got plenty of time."

A typically hyperactive performance from Drew in the semi-final against Leeds earned him man-of-the-match honours. The challenge now is to raise the individual and collective effort to the same heights against a line-up who are clearly the best team in the country.

"We need to have everyone playing to their best," Drew says. "That's what we did against Leeds, but I don't think there's a danger of us having played our final too soon. We have had trouble with our consistency this year, but we have been brilliant in the Challenge Cup. I can't see a problem with the blokes getting up for this game." Nor any problem, Drew says, with a town where the game was born, but which has had little success in living memory, getting behind the team on the big day.

"Huddersfield has been waiting for this for a lot of years. After the semi-final, we came back and the place was packed with supporters and everyone was so excited. The whole town has got the vibe." He is well placed to gauge that change of mood, living in the town with his wife and two sons. "There was a bit of homesickness at first, but the family are really enjoying it now," he says.

On the rugby front, his club's progress has exceeded his expectations. "I knew when I came they were a club on the rise. I thought it was going to be slow, but I knew it was going to be good," he says.

Drew admits that when he came to England he did not know much about the Challenge Cup or Huddersfield's fading connections with it - they last won it in 1953. "We got knocked out in our first round by St Helens last year, and it wasn't until I watched the final between Hull and Leeds that I thought it would be great to be a part of.

"People have been saying to me that it's bigger than an NRL Grand Final, bigger than playing in a Test match. When people start saying things like that, you can't wait to play in one."

Talking Tactics: Where the final will be won

FULL-BACK

Paul Wellens v Paul Reilly

All these two have in common is a first name. Wellens is a Rolls-Royce, and his flawless reading of the game has made him an obvious candidate for the Man of Steel. Reilly is all bristling aggression. This is his biggest game, and he will play accordingly.

SCRUM-HALF

Sean Long v Robbie Paul

Long has struggled this season with a leg injury but is still the best in the country, with his wonderful kicking game and enough pace to catch defences flat-footed. If there is a better Challenge Cup pedigree, it belongs to Paul. He said moving to the Giants would sharpen his appetite, and it has.

HOOKER

Keiron Cunningham v Brad Drew

Cunningham's running and distribution from dummy-half is still state of the art, and he will have James Roby on the bench to give him a mid-match rest. If anything, Drew has been an even more influential player this season.

IMPACT FORWARD

Maurie Fa'asavalu v Eorl Crabtree

Proof that it really is a 17-man game these days. These two will start the final on the bench, but either one of them could win it. Fa'asavalu is an explosive runner and intimidating tackler, while Crabtree - nephew of the wrestler Big Daddy - is similarly imposing and has startling ball-skills.

Dave Hadfield