"But it never had the effect of making me not want to play for Great Britain again."If the appetite had ever waned, it has been reawakened this season, when he has avoided injury so effectively that he has been ever-present for Saints. You train and play through the season and, by the end of it, everyone needs something fixing up," he says. "Sometimes you've got to sacrifice things for the good of your club and your career. For the last two years, I've had to sacrifice Great Britain."There was an extra reason why, to some minds, Cunningham might have been hesitant about resuming his Test career. The independent panel that adjudicated on the case said that there were mitigating circumstances, which turned out to be that Cunningham had been given the substance by a since-discredited member of the Great Britain backroom staff.It was a trying time "[It was] something I had to go through," says Cunningham.
In 2003, he tested positive for the growth hormone, HCG, was fined £2,500 and given a one-year ban, suspended for a year. Equally frustrating for those who despaired of seeing the best British hooker back in the Test side, he did not play in the internationals at the end of the 2003 or 2004 seasons either.On both occasions, he and his club decided that he needed surgery at the end of the season, giving the unfortunate impression that neither party was all that keen on him reviving his Great Britain career."It's a fine line. It is almost three years since the St Helens hooker last wore that garment. In the third Test against New Zealand in 2002, he stuck out his arm to fend off a tackler and snapped his elbow - joint, tendons and all. "When you take the rugby field you need to expect the worst, but I didn't expect anything quite as bad as that," he says. Cunningham did not play again for six months.
Tonight at Loftus Road, we will see something we feared we would never see again on a rugby league field, like contested scrums or referees in blazers: Keiron Cunningham in a Great Britain shirt. Brian Noble's initial impulse might have been to start with Richard Horne and Rob Burrow, but one fears for the barrage to which the diminutive Burrow could be subjected in the early minutes at Loftus Road.So well have Iestyn Harris and Paul Deacon played for him at Bradford in the latter stages of the season that they must also have crossed Noble's mind, but that plan has been complicated by Harris being due to become a father this weekend.Neither Horne nor Harris was in the 19 Noble named yesterday, which could point to a partnership of Deacon and Kevin Sinfield, with Burrow on the bench ready to take advantage of the tired patches to which the big Kiwi forwards are susceptible.Noble is adamant that Keith Senior is fit, but the Leeds centre has not played since August and we will only really know how fit he is when he puts his full weight on his ankle at full speed, with a Kiwi reception committee waiting.It will be a night when strong leadership is needed and it will be the first test of how Great Britain will adapt to the absence of Andy Farrell, its dominant figure for a decade.Noble says that leadership is now spread through the team, but it will still be a major test for the man who wears the armband, Jamie Peacock. I feel a bit uneasy doing that."The build-up to the first match of the English tournament has also been complicated by confusion over the two sides' half-backs.For the Kiwis, Stacey Jones was in and out of international retirement: back home in Auckland when his team-mates flew out, and then allegedly injured when he caught up with them. There now seems little doubt that he will play - and he makes more difference to them than any other player.Britain have some difficult decisions to make in the same area of the field. If we can win this game, the Chelsea game becomes bigger for us. We had an unlucky start away from home but I feel now we are on the right track."Winning trophies is the bottom line but in England people forget facts People are carried on a media wave and they ignore facts Everybody expects an interesting derby It will be I'm sure. The club have already done fantastically well to survive on gates of 6,000 at Withdean.