Or in St Helens' case, if a 20 stone man disturbs a lock of the scrum-half's hair, that's another 3 weeks on the fitness table.

Luck is playing its part but the new conditioning is playing more part than luck

SInce I don't believe in luck, I'll go for the divine intervention option.

If only Luke burgess and Jamie Peacock had better conditioning would they be playing at wembley?

Conditioning can decreases the chances of some injuries and decreases recovery times but luck remains a huge factor in a collision sport like League.

Grix is back in the gym as well, looked like he has lost a bit of weight though.

I heard last night off someone that solomona is struggling and may not play, hope they are wrong!!

That could be correct.

Dare I say it.....but players make quicker come backs when the team are doing well and are in finals. I wonder how many Bradford, Wakefield and Quins players are 'injured' atm, who may be wouldn't be if there was a final at place.

People who have played any team sport will know where I'm coming from.

I think a lot of it is luck but some of it is to do with the abaility of Smith to manage his squad. He has had this luxury because of the way we have been playing. If we had scratchy form all season then we would not have been resting players for the odd game like we have. The slightest knock and we can rest somebody.
I suppose some of this boils down to his coaching bringing out the best of the players, who have been putting in performances that give you the confidence and ability to rest players.
I reckon the bill for buying pain killing injections will have reduced significantly over the last 2 years.

Since TS has left Leeds our injury rate has gone up massivly. Coincidence? (sp)

Has it?

This year we've had a ridiculous number of injuries but I wouldn't say we've been particularly cursed in the two years before that. Buderus is the obvious one last year but that was a broken leg...even Tony Smith can't prevent that any more than he can walk on water (he can't, can he?)

As someone mentioned above when you have a good season you can rotate the squad a bit and help avoid injuries (especially repeat injuries from rushing players back). Leeds haven't had that luxury this year whereas we did for example in 2006.