BROTHERLY love will see half-back Paul Thorman waive his York City Knights allegiance this weekend to fly the flag for Huddersfield.

The 23-year-old Geordie will be part of the family clan heading south to Twickenham tomorrow hoping to see big brother Chris Thorman not only play in the Powergen Challenge Cup final but also lift the famous old trophy.

The Knights, of course, are not in action this weekend as the rugby league programme takes a break for the showpiece event, which sees the Giants take on Super League leaders St Helens at Twickenham.

And Paul will be 100 per cent behind his brother's team - even though they knocked out the Knights in the fifth round on the way to the final.

"It's a bit of a family outing, and we'll be supporting Hudders-field for definite," he said.

Chris' wife's parents are flying over from the US especially for the match, while the rest of the Thorman clan, including mum, dad, aunties and uncles will be heading south. Younger brother Neil - himself a Knights player last season and now back at home-town club Gateshead - will also be there.

"We've got a bus-load going down," added Paul, who was hopeful they would see the Giants pull off a shock.

"People are writing them off and St Helens are top of the tree, but people wrote them off in the semi-final against Leeds and they did a really good job on them," he said.

"It's a cup final and it's a one-off. You shouldn't take form into account in any cup competition.

"I would rate their chances as good as any. Huddersfield players probably realise chances like this don't come along very often, whereas if you're at Saints you could probably guarantee there will be another one or two finals in your time there. This might have an effect."

England international Chris, the Giants' club captain, remains a big doubt for the match after straining a hamstring a fortnight ago, but was giving himself as long as possible to recover.

Paul explained: "It's touch and go and he probably won't know for sure either way until the tomorrow in the warm-up.

"If he does get to play it would be the biggest game of his life. With something like the Challenge Cup final, you don't know if and when you're going to get another opportunity. You might only get one shot throughout your career and, obviously, he's desperate to play."

The Thormans might hail from a rugby league outpost - the North East - but the magic of the cup is not lost on them.

"We were speaking about it the other day, how we used to watch cup finals on TV," said Paul. "It's always a showpiece event in the British sporting calendar.

"It's up there with the FA Cup final and the Grand National. It's not just rugby league circles who know about it - when you speak about the Challenge Cup, even to a non-rugby league person, they know what it's all about.

"We used to watch the Chal-lenge Cup on the BBC when we were kids, when it was the only way we would get to see a game. We dreamt about playing in the final and hopefully Chris will get to do that tomorrow."

England call New England coach Paul Cullen has included five Leeds players in a 20-man train-on squad for this autumn's Federation Shield tournament against France, Samoa and Tonga.

Ryan Bailey, Danny Williams, Lee Smith, Nick Scruton and Jamie Jones-Buchanan are included in a squad which will be bolstered by players discarded from the Great Britain training squad preparing for the Tri-Nations.

England train-on squad: Chris Ashton (Wigan), Ryan Atkins (Wakefield), Chris Bridge (Warrington), Kevin Brown (Huddersfield), Luke Robinson (Salford), Jamie Rooney (Wakefield), Lee Smith (Leeds), Danny Williams (Leeds), Ryan Bailey (Leeds), Andy Coley (Salford), Eorl Crabtree (Huddersfield), Ewan Dowes (Hull), Brett Ferres (Bradford), Mark Gleeson (Warrington), Wayne Godwin (Wigan), Jamie Jones-Buchanan (Leeds), Rob Purdham (Harlequins), Lee Radford (Hull), Nick Scruton (Leeds), Ben Westwood (Warrington).

Tomorrow's squads

Powergen Challenge Cup final (at Twickenham) Huddersfield (probable): Paul Reilly, Martin Aspinwall, Stephen Wild, Michael De Vere, Stuart Donlan, Chris Thorman, Robbie Paul, Keith Mason, Brad Drew, Jim Gannon, Chris Nero, Paul Smith, Stuart Jones. Subs: from Eorl Crabtree, Paul Jackson, Andy Raleigh, Wayne McDonald, Steve Snitch.

St Helens (probable): Paul Wellens, Ade Gardner, Jamie Lyon, Willie Talau, Francis Meli, Leon Pryce, Sean Long, Jason Cayless, Keiron Cunningham, Paul Anderson, Jon Wilkin, Paul Sculthorpe, Jason Hooper. Subs: from James Roby, Nick Fozzard, Lee Gilmour, Vinnie Anderson, James Graham, Maurie Fa'asavalu.

Referee: R Silverwood (Mirfield).

Kick-off: 2.45pm.