The 21-man squad for St Helens, facing Warrington Wolves in the Super League play-offs, has been confirmed.
It’s a reversed fixture from when these two sides met at this stage last year, when Saints were the side that had finished third and Warrington had, after a late-season drop-off, had finished sixth.
It was St Helens that emerged victorious on the day last time, before losing to Catalans Dragons in the semi-final.
However, they will be going into this game as the underdogs, and face a side with Matt Dufty back fit.
Paul Wellens will, however, be able to call on more players than he has for most of an injury-riddled season.
The last time Saints didn’t make it as far as the semi-final stage was 2013, and they have won four of the last five Super League Grand Finals.
St Helens team news
Credit: Olly Hassell/SWpix.com
Saints had a number of doubts going into this game, with Curtis Sironen suffering another set-back a couple of weeks back to slow down his recovery.
Meanwhile, Alex Walmsley’s illness made him a doubt for this one, too.
However, Wellens told Serious About RL this week: “Unfortunately Moses Mbye has got a three to four week calf injury so that’s probably the season, it might be one that we can look at should we get to a Grand Final but we’ve got to worry about what we need to do to get there first.”
Walmsley has made it, but Sironen is not included in the squad, as Jonny Vaughan is the only player coming into the squad that wasn’t part of it last week.
St Helens 21-man squad: 1. Jack Welsby, 2. Tommy Makinson, 3. Waqa Blake, 4. Mark Percival, 5. Jon Bennison, 6. Jonny Lomax, 7. Lewis Dodd, 8. Alex Walmsley, 9. Daryl Clark, 10. Matty Lees, 11. Sione Mata’utia, 12. Joe Bactchelor, 13. Morgan Knowles, 15. James Bell, 17. Agnatius Paasi, 19. Matt Whitley, 20. George Delaney, 21. Ben Davies, 24. Jake Burns, 30. Jonny Vaughan, 31. Noah Stephens.
Warrington Wolves 21-man squad: Matty Ashton, John Bateman, Jordy Crowther, Ben Currie, Josh Drinkwater, Matt Dufty, James Harrison, Toby King, Aaron Lindop, Zane Musgrove, Matty Nicholson, Joe Philbin, Sam Powell, Stefan Ratchford, Rodrick Tai, Josh Thewlis, Paul Vaughan, Danny Walker, Tom Whitehead, George Williams, Luke Yates.
