Bulldogs skipper Andrew Ryan says his team will have to watch South Sydney hooker Isaac Luke when the two teams meet in their NRL second round match on Good Friday.

Luke, a former Canterbury junior, was the stand out player for South Sydney in their round one loss to the Sydney Roosters.

Ryan says his team will have to work hard in defence to shut down the 21-year-old who has proven to be a vital part of Jason Taylor's side.

"Obviously they've got Isaac and plenty of guys around there that can certainly cut you up in the middle if you don't do your homework and work hard in defence," he said.

Ryan says there is no extra pressure on the Bulldogs to perform, despite rumours surrounding the future of coach Steve Folkes and a dramatic second-half capitulation against the Eels last week.

There was speculation during the off season that the team needed to start the season well to secure Folkes' position, but Ryan says it is not an issue.

"No there's no extra pressure... we haven't even spoken about it at all," he said.

"As far as we're concerned all we want is to play every week, and Folkesy obviously he's not concerned about that."

"All he can do is coach the team to the best of his ability and that's what he's done so far."

Their opposition is preparing for life without Craig Wing in only the second week after losing their new half-back to a long term shoulder injury.

Luke says the dislocated shoulder to Wing is a blow not only to the team, but his own development.

The 29-year-old was recruited by the club for his experience and to mentor younger players and Luke says he will continue to seek Wing's advice.

"I'll ask Craig to come round to the training after he's had his surgery and if he's got time maybe we could have a talk about what I've got to go through," he said.

"That's hit me pretty bad having him off the field, But I'll have him in training and maybe that'll help."

Luke says the Rabbitohs also have to cut down on their numerous mistakes if they are to bounce back from last week's lost to the Roosters.

"We got to complete all our sets [against the Roosters], just ball control was pretty much the opposite," he said.

"We just have to complete all our sets and maybe come away with the win and 2 points."

CRAIG Wing pleaded to be left alone after enduring painful surgery at the end of the most harrowing week of his career.

Injured just eight minutes into the centenary season-opener in a tackle which could change the rules of the game, the 28-year-old was on the verge of tears according to those close to him.

He has cancelled an appearance on the Nine Network's Footy Show this evening and written to South Sydney asking that they help shield him from the media and promotional duties.

"It has only just really dawned on me how long I am going to be out," he said in a statement passed to The Daily Telegraph through his personal advisor.

"I have made myself available to the media and everyone all week and done everything I have been asked to do.

"Now I just want to gather my thoughts, begin my recovery and spend time with my girlfriend."

Riley Brown's shoulder charge on Wing has led to an NRL warning about the "prowler tackle", where a player already held is shoulder-charged by a third defender.

But that debate was the furthest thing from the international utility's mind as he rested on a couch in Bondi.

Wing's advisor, Real Estate magnate Rodney Prestia, said: "I'll be honest with you, he is close to tears.

"He's groggy, in a lot of pain and just wants to be alone. He knows people are interested in the fallout from the tackle but right now he doesn't care about that."

Prestia wrote to Souths' football manager Shane Richardson asking that the club "close ranks" around Wing and fend off media and promotional requests.

But the rest of the rugby league world remained enraptured with the implications of an incident five days ago.

At the launch of the representative season at ANZ Stadium, Souths and New Zealand captain Roy Asotasi said: "Putting a player in a position where his back is facing the opposition and he is whacked from behind isn't a good practice.

"Rugby league is tough and we don't want to take away the toughness but we also have to look after the safety of the players."

But Wests Tigers and City Origin coach Tim Sheens said there had been an over-reaction to the incident.

"I don't agree when we start being told how many we can have and how many we can't going into a tackle," Sheens said.

"Ninety-nine times out of 100, a player wouldn't have been hurt. You run the risk of injury every time you run on the field, the players know that.

"If we're going to stop defenders going in then we are giving offensive sides a clear advantage."

CABARET performer and satirist Eddie Perfect was last seen in Melbourne in Keating! The Musical, mercilessly lampooning Alexander Downer.

Last night Perfect slipped out of Mr Downer's fishnets and high heels and into something far more comfortable. Dressed in boardies and sporting peroxided hair and a spray-on tan, Perfect transformed into Aussie sports hero, loveable larrikin, and all-round bloke Shane Warne.

Perfect unveiled his warts-and-all tribute to the scandal-prone cricket legend to 4000 people at the Melbourne Comedy Festival opening at Vodafone Arena, belting out the show-stopper What an SMS I'm In. The song is one of 27 Perfect has written for his unauthorised Shane Warne the Musical, which will have its world premiere at the Athenaeum Theatre in December.

Described as a musical play that combines heavy metal music, opera, soul and power ballads, Perfect, a cast of seven and a four-piece band will play roles including ex-wife Simone, Warne's mother singing Take the Pill, and the entire Australian cricket team singing We Never Cross the Line.

A Bollywood-style dance number explores the excesses of bribery scandals.

Last night's snippet was one of a series of public airings of the much-awaited musical, first seen at Adelaide's Cabaret Festival last year. These continue from tomorrow with five "work in progress" shows at the city's Hi-Fi Bar during the Comedy Festival.

Perfect, who has never met the former Australian cricketer, said Warne and "his people" had been invited to see the show. "I would love him to love it," Perfect said yesterday.

"I think when he first heard about it his initial reaction was fear, surprise and trepidation, which is fair enough. But I've been working on this for two years, and it would be too easy to do something that tears strips off him.

"Warne's life is so operatic in scope, with its dizzying successes and its personal losses. It's just the stuff of great drama."

But just for protection, the drama in the script has been vetted by lawyers, and Perfect hopes that even Simone and Warne's mother, Brigitte, will warm to it. "Simone is really the moral compass of the show. (And) Brigitte is the quintessential Aussie mum on the sidelines supporting him or telling him when to pull his head in. In Take the Pill she really rocks out."

Whatever Warne's reaction to the show, he will be in good company. Some of the team who made Keating! The Musical the massive success it has been have joined Perfect's musical.

The Warne show is now being directed by Neil Armfield, and Keating! creator Casey Bennetto has also come on as its script editor.

But unlike Keating!, Shane Warne the Musical has overseas box office appeal.

Shane Warne The Musical - (A Work in Progress) is at the Hi-Fi Bar, 125 Swanston Street, tomorrow, and April 5-6 and 12-13. Bookings: comedyfestival.com.au