Paul Wellens is comfortable with where St Helens are at in terms of their recruitment for next season but concedes they have work still to do.
Over the last few days St Helens have confirmed that a number of senior players will be leaving the club when Saints‘ Super League season comes to an end. Moses Mbye will be heading back to Australia at the end of the season, while James Bell and Joe Batchelor will be joining Hull FC and Jon Bennison has left the club, too.
There are still some futures to clear up as well with Agnatius Paasi, Curtis Sironen and Matt Whitley among those with announcements still to be made on one way or the other.
However, while players are leaving, we are no closer to finding out who St Helens will be bringing in for the 2026 season. The club are yet to confirm any new signings but have been linked to a number of overseas recruits including Siliva Havili, Josh Papali’i and Reagan Campbell-Gillard in recent months.
Papali’i won’t be happening while a move for Campbell-Gillard looks unlikely, too. It’s fair to say, though, that strengthening the pack is a priority of the Merseyside outfit over the off-season and Wellens is very aware that the club need to add fresh blood to their squad.
St Helens boss talks recruitment
“We regularly have meetings around recruitment and try and assemble the best squad to be competitive but it’s not always that easy,” Wellens said in his pre-match press conference. “It’s a competitive market out there now, there’s more clubs in the competition, the NRL is expanding, so there’s a lot of factors at play now that make recruitment more difficult than it has been in recent years.
“We’re still looking to strengthen, I make no secret of that. That’s where we’re at at this moment in time. We’re continuing to try and build a squad.
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“We’re also going to promote some younger players again like we always do. I’m comfortable at the moment but I’m sat here knowing that we are going to need to strengthen more.”
Asked whether strengthening the pack was a priority, Wellens said: “One of the reasons we brought Shane Wright in, Shane’s a player that we’re interested in keeping longer term if we can.
“Those discussions have got to take place but it’s quite clearly an area where we need to strengthen as a club. I know we have a lot of good players here and the core of a really strong squad but we do need to strengthen in other areas if we want to remain competitive.”
As mentioned above, Paasi and Sironen’s futures remain up in the air at present, with neither man being confirmed to be leaving or staying.
Asked for clarity on that front, Wellens said: “Discussions are ongoing and something one way or the other will be announced in due course.”
