Senior savours Super League dream team recall

Evergreen centre Keith Senior loves nothing better than proving his critics wrong and he cocked another snook at them following his selection in the 2009 engage Super League Dream Team.

The barnstorming Leeds threequarter, one of the few survivors from the inaugural season of Super League in 1996, was rewarded for another tremendous season with a recall to the Dream Team after an absence of five years.

"That's what makes it nice," he said. "When you get to a certain age, people write you off and, at the ripe old age of 33, people say I'm playing the best rugby of my career which I find quite insulting.

"But it's nice to get recognition after all hard work of the season. I've been working hard on my game, as I do every year.

"I wouldn't say I've improved but I've definitely been more consistent this year and it seems to have stood out a little more because I'm an old man."

Senior will be aiming to help the Rhinos take another big step towards a hat-trick of Old Trafford appearances on Friday when they host Hull KR in the first qualifying play-off at Headingley.

Like Leeds, Rovers have four representatives in the Dream Team in winger Peter Fox, scrum-half Michael Dobson and second-row pair Clint Newton and Ben Galea.

St Helens, on the other hand, have a solitary representative in Australian centre Matt Gidley, who was shocked at the exclusion of reigning Man of Steel James Graham.

"We haven't as many representatives as in previous years and I was initially surprised because James Graham has had an fantastic year," he said.

"But then you look at guys like Adrian Morley and Jamie Peacock who have been fantastic for their clubs.

"There is a wealth of front rowers going around the Super League at the moment and there's some depth in all positions."

The team, which is chosen by a panel of journalists and broadcasters and is based on form throughout the regular season is: Brett Hodgson (Huddersfield); Peter Fox (Hull KR), Matt Gidley (St Helens), Keith Senior (Leeds), Ryan Hall (Leeds); Sam Tomkins (Wigan), Michael Dobson (Hull KR); Adrian Morley (Warrington), Scott Moore (Huddersfield), Jamie Peacock (Leeds), Ben Galea (Hull KR), Clint Newton (Hull KR), Kevin Sinfield (Leeds).