Heighno's call to Leichhardt faithful

It's taken three years but 300-game veteran Chris Heighington will return to Leichhardt Oval in a match that could prove to be his last at the suburban venue.

As the Wests Tigers use three grounds – Leichhardt Oval, Campbelltown Stadium and ANZ Stadium – throughout the season, they have only met the Sharks on seven occasions at the venue since 2000.

With the 35-year-old's future up in the air beyond the 2017 Telstra Premiership season, the chance to return to a ground where he made 27 appearances in the black and gold is something that may not come around again even if he does play on next year.

"It has been a while," Heighington said with a smile of his last visit to Leichhardt Oval.

"It's always awesome playing there and seeing the Wests Tigers fans who have been so supportive throughout my career.

"After the game I'll still speak to a lot of them so hopefully they can all turn out.

 

"All my mates seem to come along to those games too and still all love sitting on the hill.

"Their back five are playing really well and everyone seems to be working hard for one and other so we'll have to work hard to beat them hopefully in front of a big crowd.

"The last time they played there was against Melbourne on a Sunday and it was an outstanding crowd.

"We won four in a row coming into last week so it's not all that bad but we have to get back into the winners circle."

Cronulla have been dominant on the road in the opening two months of the Telstra Premiership, winning all four of their away games, but have lost four of their last six clashes at Southern Cross Group Stadium.

"[The Titans game] was a disappointing loss but we've had a hard week at training so hopefully we can put in a good performance on Saturday night," Heighington said.

"It was our home game and we never delivered in the clutch plays and the games before that we were good in those areas.

"Everything he (Sharks coach Shane Flanagan) said the Titans would do they did, they hung in there for 80 minutes and we weren't at our best so hats off to them.

"We're coming last in some areas in stats that are very important in rugby league with penalties and completion rates. That's a good indication that we've still got a good team here but we're not at our best."

Sharks teammate Ricky Leutele didn't believe a poor attitude was the problem for the premiers last week but rather a couple of lapses in key moments.

"I think our attitude is there but our efforts off the ball have let us down," Leutele said.

"It was disappointing from our standards, we had the game there but we threw it away in the last few minutes.

"We need to pick up our attitude at home, we've been good on the road this year but we need to transfer that to create a fortress again."

Along with Wests Tigers fullback James Tedesco, Leutele identified in-form winger and Samoan teammate David Nofoaluma as a key man to stop on Saturday night.

"Their back five is probably one of the best in the NRL so we're aware of that and ready for them," Leutele said.

"[Tedesco] loves staggered lines and broken play so it's important for me to keep a straight defensive line and Nofoaluma has been making plenty of tackle breaks bringing the ball back from kicks."

Author: 
www.nrl.com