The week off for the Challenge Cup Final could not come at a better time for St Helens, who, despite sitting third in Super League and level on points with first, have plenty of questions and issues to address.
Saints have lost just three times in Super League with a fourth season defeat coming when they were dumped out of the Challenge Cup by rivals Wigan Warriors, and the manner of three of those four defeats is simply not acceptable for a club of their size.
They were hammered 52-10 by Hull KR, nilled by Wigan, and most recently outworked and outperformed by a Castleford side who previously had been unable to string two wins together.
New data shared by the brilliant Mike Meehall Wood has highlighted that St Helens are vastly over-performing in terms of expected points, with the data suggesting that the club should actually be closer to six wins in Super League, rather than nine.
More on that can be found here but beyond the statistics, there is much more to address at St Helens and this week presents the perfect time for the club to get ahead and initiate a proactive approach rather than the reactive one that has limited them in recent years.
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St Helens’ looming questions
Why this week is so critical?
We’re a month on from Abi Ekoku taking his position as CEO of St Helens, an appointment that was announced in early April, so it’s fair to say that the ex-interim RFL CEO has had time to get to grips with what’s going on.
Unfortunately for Ekoku, in the month since he took charge, Saints have been dumped from the Challenge Cup, performed poorly against Huddersfield, and lost to Castleford Tigers, but that perhaps highlights the true issues meaning they can be dealt with.
Contracts
Chief among the issues that need to be addressed are the club’s remaining off-contract players, three of whom are overseas players with two of those playing in the spine.
Kyle Feldt appears to have fallen out of favour in recent weeks, first dropping out for the Challenge Cup tie against Wigan due to a HIA before being overlooked for Lewis Murphy and Owen Dagnall in the last two games.
At 34 and as an overseas player, perhaps the decision on Feldt’s future may be easier than working out what to do with Jackson Hastings and Tristan Sailor.
Both started the season exceptionally but they’ve plateaued and it wouldn’t be unfair to say they’re now underperforming, with Hastings’ frustration late on against Castleford seeing him land a two-match ban.
A player of Hastings’ class, on-form, is an obvious one to re-sign but on current form, he’s a major salary cap saving. As for Sailor, the same questions that plagued him in 2025 are recurring again. Is he a full-back, is he a six, or is he just a luxury that St Helens can’t afford?
Full-back issues
That leads on to the next point and this time it’s not necessarily for Ekoku to sort out but more so for Paul Rowley and his coaching staff, that question being – what do you do with Jack Welsby and Tristan Sailor?
Rowley set his stall early on when appointed as he aimed to conclusively answer the question that Paul Wellens could not, with Sailor announced as the club’s number six before any other shirt numbers were revealed.
It was a clear statement from the club and from Rowley, however, Sailor’s form at full-back in Welsby’s absence meant that statement was forgotten as upon the Englishman’s return, it was Sailor who retained the full-back position.
Welsby was moved to play a hybrid six role that showed signs of working against York Knights when he scored a classic full-back try, however, it’s failed to click since to the point where it feels like one or the other has to be selected and only at full-back.
With Sailor the man off-contract, maybe that’s where Ekoku does come into play and force Paul Rowley’s hand. It will of course take time for Welsby to find form but it’s better to be trying to find it now than trying to find it come the play-offs, at which stage last season spine changes were still being made.
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Identity
Next comes the biggest one given Matt Peet’s infamous comments, how do St Helens find their identity again? No-one can argue that they have not had major injury issues and for many clubs, that does mean resorting to the market.
For a club like St Helens though, it should not mean that. For a club like St Helens, new stars are unearthed when injuries come along, just as Wigan have shown with George Marsden and Noah Hodkinson this season, just as they did with Jack Farrimond in recent years and with Zach Eckersley at Wembley in 2024.
Saints have had George Whitby out on loan at Salford this past week which, when you consider his talent and their own spine issues, is baffling.
Injuries offered up an opportunity for Jake Davies and the second-rower seized it, scoring in four straight games and earning himself a new deal, yet he found himself omitted against Wigan, benched against Huddersfield and then left out against Castleford Tigers.
Whilst these are individual selection calls, they add up and fuel the question of ‘what is St Helens’ identity?’
Adding to that rhetoric, and being the initial trigger of Matt Peet’s famous quote, was the one-week loan of Bill Leyland. At first the Hull KR man was brought in to fill a gap and help to see off Wigan on Good Friday, but he was loaned in again simply to give Daryl Clark a rest ahead of the Challenge Cup. Maybe Saints don’t win those games if they give young Tom Humphreys a chance but maybe Saints don’t keep or attract talents like Humphreys if they continue to make such decisions.
There’s a hotbed of talent in Lancashire, Merseyside and Chesire, and we’ve seen both Wigan Warriors and Warrington Wolves bring through plenty and trust those players to star, and trust is the key word.
Wigan and Wire have the trust in their youngsters and have shown the willingness to potentially sacrifice games due the naivety of their young guns because they know in the long run, that will pay off ten-fold. St Helens need to rediscover that trust which has served them so well before if they’re to snap what is becoming, by their standards, a silverware drought.
