THE plume from the Puyehue-Cordon Caulle volcano in Chile might have caused travel chaos across Australia, but for the Wests Tigers it has brought the team closer together.
Players, coaches and club officials were stranded after their Sunday game against the Warriors in Auckland, only arriving back in Sydney at 11pm on Tuesday night.
''The guys handled it pretty well,'' Tigers coach Tim Sheens said. ''I think we packed and unpacked four times, and then it was a long trip home via Brisbane and a small plane back to Bankstown airport in the middle of the night.''
While in New Zealand, the Tigers made the best of the situation, treating it like a small camp. An impromptu training session on Auckland's Victoria Park was initiated to make sure the ash cloud would not interrupt the preparations for tomorrow's game against the Melbourne Storm at Leichhardt Oval.
The Tigers have won their past three matches against the Storm, and Sheens has retained the same side that remarkably escaped defeat against the New Zealand Warriors.
Robbie Farah, who flew back earlier on Monday to provide back-up for the NSW Blues, is looking forward to the bumper crowd expected at Leichhardt. ''We've had a decent record there in previous years,'' Farah said. "Hopefully this rain stays away. All the boys are always excited to play there, and this week will be no different."
The Storm are second on the NRL table behind St George Illawarra, and are a model of consistency when compared with the Tigers. Farah will have the unenviable task of nullifying the influence of Storm hooker Cameron Smith.
''Cameron is in great form at the moment, at rep level and at club level,'' Farah said. ''You know what you come up against when you play a side like Melbourne - Cameron Smith, Billy Slater, Cooper Cronk - our work will be cut out, but we're confident. It'll be a tough game, but a good challenge for us.''
The battle of the five-eighths will also be an absorbing element of the game. Benji Marshall scored a hat-trick when the sides last played, and his opposite number, Gareth Widdop, continues to impress in his break-out year, leading his team in line breaks with 12. Widdop's England teammate, the Tigers' Gareth Ellis, was not surprised by his development.
''He's a great lad … I spent a bit of time with him obviously in England camps,'' Ellis said. ''He's a big part of what Melbourne has been doing this year. Without a doubt, he's been to one of the best rugby league schools in the world, so I'm sure he's learning off them. It bodes well for England later in the year.''
The Storm will have four Queenslanders backing up from Origin II, but Sheens was resolute that fatigue would not be a factor. ''They've done it for years now, so I don't think that there would be a huge advantage for us,'' he said. ''If we're thinking so, we're being fools. We're going out to play, as far as we are concerned, a full-strength Melbourne side.''
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