SAINTS coach Royce Simmons has warned his players to be on their guard when they come up against a heavily Australian-influenced Crusaders side on Friday night.

The likelihood of former State of Origin player Ryan O’Hara being on the bench is indicative of the strength of the north Wales-based outfit now that they have their full squad on board.

Saints, who expect to have five players from their 11-strong casualty list returning, will be keen to avoid any slip ups with a month of massive fixtures just around the corner.

Crusaders, who had no cup game last weekend, will be fresher than Saints – something Simmons has warned his players about.

He said: “Straight after the game I told the players that the Crusaders have been getting ready to play us for seven days already.

“They have had some rest time too.

“I read in the paper that they are going to be back at full strength – and guessing at their bench it shows how strong their side will be. They could have blokes like Jordan Tansey,Tony Martin, Ryan O’Hara and Jarrod Sammut coming off the bench.

“They are a strong fit side who have spent a long time getting ready to play so we have to be ready too.”

Saints have never lost to the Crusaders, who are now bossed by Iestyn Harris, and will go into the game buoyed by their 70-0 drubbing of Featherstone Rovers.

But Simmons believes the manner in which they saw off Rovers could provide some potential pitfalls.

“Against Crusaders we have got to be prepared to do all the stuff we did early in the game to set up the win against Featherstone.

“You can look at the 70-0 and try and take that into a game the way we scored tries at the end and you can get caught.

“Wins like that can give you some momentum or they can give you some bad habits too,” Simmons said.