STEVE Prescott’s rugby career turned full circle this week with the former Saints full back rejoining his home town club as assistant coach to the talented under 20s side.

He picks up the coaching reins he first grasped at Hull under 16s – a post he had to relinquish in September 2006 when he was diagnosed with a rare form of stomach cancer.

Working under Saints’ 20s coach Ian Talbot, Steve will be passing on his expertise gleaned from more than a decade of top flight rugby to the team’s talented youth.

But he will also be drawing on his own experience of playing at this level as a teenager and the highs and lows that go with that.

Steve, a double winner with Saints in 1996, has agreed a workload with the coaching staff that takes into account his illness, family commitments and his insatiable desire to undertake gruelling challenges.

He said: “I didn’t know how much work I could put on myself – it is difficult when you go to the hospital every three months for a scan, and you don’t whether it is chemotherapy time.

“It is hard to hold down a full time job and did not know whether my body was physically ready for that. But I spoke to Mike Rush at Saints – and he said ‘come and help out’.

“I did not know how much workload it would be, whether it would put pressure on me health wise and mean more time away from my children, which are important to me."

Steve’s commitment to Saints has meant he has had to relinquish his position with the RFL, where he has been a member of the match review panel for the past four seasons – a role that has seen him part of a team that analyses every tackle at a time when underhand tactics like chicken wings, ninjas, cannon balls and leg twists have become part of some players’ illicit armoury.

Although it is a post he has given up with some regret, he is excited at returning to Saints to work with a great crop of youngsters.

“I have plenty to learn and spent the full day with the first team on Monday, just watching drills and the coaching techniques of Royce Simmons and Kieron Purtill.

“There has got to be a pass on from the under 20s to the first team. If you don’t challenge the under 20s that jump is too big for the youngsters when they do get in the first team. It is a challenge to get those 20s lads ready to play in the first team squad,” he said.

Saints’ playing and training facilities may have seen a vast upgrade from the ones he left behind when he joined Hull in 1998, but it is nevertheless it is still a welcome return home for the 37-year-old.

Although he only describes it as a small role in the backroom team, it is a return he is proud of.

“I have done full circle and am back to the beginning.

“Saints are my home town club and will always have a massive affection for them and Hull where I spent some happy years. There was always a dream of coming back and helping out and I have this little opportunity now,” Steve said.