Etu Uaisele Column

WE go into this weekend’s visit of Dewsbury on the back of 15 straight Championship victories.

It was a very big win against Doncaster last week and, although we would have liked to be more fluent in the first half, the second half was very pleasing.

Mingling with the fans on the pitch after the game was a good buzz and of course it was great to see Lesley Vainikolo there too.

Big Les will be at Odsal again this weekend for the last time before he heads back to New Zealand with his family.

I got to spend a few days with him last week and it’s always good to be with someone as legendary as him.

He’s an awesome guy and was an unbelievable player whose career I followed closely when he was at Bradford and New Zealand.

I loved watching him play and I met him in 2006 when I first came into the Tonga team.

We played England, France and Samoa and I remember Les took the boys out for dinner and a few drinks.

We still talk about that night out now and I would also like to pay tribute to Jerry Collins following his passing last week.

He was one of the greats and that’s why I have died my hair, as a tribute to Jerry and in honour of his memory.

He was a legendary rugby player and I was pleased to be able to get on the scoresheet last week against Doncaster on the day that I paid tribute to Jerry.

The good thing is now that more and more of the squad are approaching full fitness and that is giving Jimmy a number of selection problems.

Although Gasky misses out this week, the likes of Jake Mullaney, Matty Blythe and Harry Siejka are back in the 19-man squad.

That is very pleasing as we move towards the business end of the season and the Super Eights.

It means as players currently in the team that we cannot drop off an inch otherwise Jimmy will change things around because he has so many options.

That’s the way you want it to be and such strength in depth and fierce competition across the board is to be welcomed with open arms.