
St Helens boss Paul Wellens has spoken on his team selection for Saturday’s pre-season loss to Salford Red Devils with the head coach revealing minor issues for three of his first-team squad.
Wellens also moved to explain why certain players did not feature as he highlighted the absence of those who played in the end-of-season internationals, barring Morgan Knowles who featured given it was his testimonial.
The Cumbrian was one of several first-team players to feature in the 40-12 loss to the Red Devils, although a very young bench was named including try-scorer Harry Robertson.
Speaking to SaintsTV, Wellens explained his decision not to include the international players with the yet-to-be-announced Ashes Test series one of the key reasons.
Wellens explained: “Morgs only played 20 minutes today, it was important that he did play in his game but he probably would not have played it had it been somebody else’s testimonial.
“I thought about playing the international guys but I got midway through the week and thought ‘these guys only finished playing in November and realistically if the Ashes series is played then they might be finishing in November, why do they need to be playing in January – they’ll have plenty of rugby throughout the course of the year’.”
Internationals who did not play included Jack Welsby, Matty Lees and Daryl Clark, whilst there was also explanations for the absence of three other first-team talents.
Wellens revealed: “Curtis (Sironen) is recovering from a bit of an injury which he’s making good progress (with) and he’s back in full squad training this week.
“Alex (Walmsley) is starting full squad training and Percy (Mark Percival) just had a bit of an injection on Monday to alleviate some pain he has got going on but that’s not serious, there was just no need to play him.”
With Super League just three weeks away, St Helens will line up against Salford Red Devils again but not before facing amateur side West Hull in Round Three of the Challenge Cup.
