From St Paul To...Err...St Paul - Rowley Rides In

Saints have taken the first steps on the long road back to genuine contender status with the appointment of Paul Rowley as Head Coach.

The former Salford coach replaces Paul Wellens whose three season tenure was put out of its misery on October 9. It came after two seasons outside the top four and a Super League semi-final defeat to eventual champions Hull KR. 

Making the last four probably sounds like success for many other clubs but unfortunately for Wellens Saints are one of those clubs held to a higher standard by their fans. It wasn't quite good enough especially considering the often tedious style of rugby that got them there.

I'm 100% behind the club's view that Rowley's time is now. Until financial meltdown struck at Salford this year the Red Devils were making great strides. They finished fourth last season before suffering a narrow defeat to Leigh Leopards in the playoffs. That followed finishes of 6th in 2022 and 7th in 2023 respectively. Salford had reached the Grand Final in Rowley's first season with the club as a coaching consultant in 2019. It feels like expectations and culture at Salford have elevated since the ex-Leigh and Toronto coach got involved. Saints need some of that.

A former Leigh and Halifax hooker who made almost 400 first team appearances, Rowley's coaching journey started at the bus stop in Wigan back when they were known as the Centurions.  He won two Championship titles with Leigh which is no mean feat while working for boycott threatening crank Derek Beaumont. 

Rowley had two seasons in charge at Toronto Wolfpack, guiding them into the Championship from League One but left before their ill-fated attempt to play in Super League. Then came Salford. Rowley has done great work with underdogs. Now we will find out how he operates under greater expectation to win.

Just as important as his achievements so far is the style with which his teams went about it. Salford played a much more expansive style of rugby under Rowley than we have seen from Saints since 2019 when Justin Holbrook left for Gold Coast. 

That might not seem like much on the face of it but with players like Brodie Croft, Marc Sneyd, Nene McDonald and Tim Lafai in the side Salford were genuinely among the better teams in terms of entertainment value during Rowley's reign. That is surely going to resonate with a set of fans who have had three years of one out rugby without success under Wellens.

His experience will also add a layer of calmness that was absent with Wellens. With each passing defeat - usually against top three sides - Wellens would look increasingly stressed, fraught even. Despite his stellar playing career he never truly possessed the calmness under pressure that characterised his playing style. Rowley has seen it all before when it comes to adversity. He has dealt with far bigger problems in recent times than anything in Wellens' in-tray. 

The kind of firefighting Rowley has been involved in during 2025 might raise a question about how he will deal with higher expectations. Nobody expected Salford to win games this term. It was an achievement to get a team on to the field week to week. Reports suggest players were often meeting for the first time in the lead in to some fixtures. That they managed to win even three games is a testament to Rowley's ability to get the best out of players and forge the kind of togetherness that is required to be successful. 

He will face a level of pressure and expectation that he hasn't yet encountered. Three seasons of underachievement and dull rugby will have done nothing to dampen the expectations of some Saints fans. That now comes with the territory when you have a rich history of winning titles, particularly in the Super League era. 

The job description is to win. You can do it ugly like Kristian Woolf and Daniel Anderson did - but you have to do it. Fans' social media meltdowns will still happen but he should get some leeway from his employers.  They should be acutely aware that something of a rebuild is needed and for that you need time. He must be given that time even if Mike Rush is on podcasts complaining about outside noise.

With the top job sorted what of the rest of the coaching team? Lee Briers' attacking input has been difficult to discern. That's disappointing given how he made big improvements at both Wigan and Brisbane Broncos before coming home to St Helens. Some say Wellens wouldn't allow him to release what is now annoyingly known as the handbrake while others see Briers as having failed to make an impact. During the announcement of his arrival Rowley alluded to making changes to the attack which may hint that he'll want control of it himself.

He also highlighted the strength of Saints' defence and acknowledged the platform that it has given him on which to build. Only Hull KR and Leeds Rhinos conceded fewer points than Saints in the regular season. That kept them in games even as the attack stuttered and - occasionally - came to a total standstill. 

Eamon O'Carroll deserves great credit for this but it might not be a guarantee of extending his time with the club should Rowley want to bring his own backroom team in. The recent appointment of his long time Salford assistant Kurt Haggerty as Head Coach at Bradford Bulls perhaps makes a full backroom overhaul less likely. 

Recruitment will be key. Twelve players have left the club, some of whom will need replacing. Shane Wright and Deon Cross arrived during 2025 and will know Rowley well from their time at Salford. Aside from that South Sydney Rabbitohs back rower Jacob Host is the only new addition. There has to be more. Rush's assertion that he would like 75% of the squad to be home grown academy products is not realistic if you also want to challenge for the major honours. 

Give us your thoughts on the appointment of Rowley. Can he rebuild effectively and get Saints back to the summit of Super League? Or would you have preferred an alternative? If so, let us know who you think could have been appointed.

Five Saints Is No Jake - England Ashes Squad Analysis

Just when you thought the rugby league season was all over and you had seen quite enough of your team getting schooled for their inadequacies along comes an Ashes series. 

England Coach Shaun Wane has selected a 24-man squad for the three Test series which starts at Wembley on October 25 before taking in stops at Everton’s Hil Dickinson Stadium on November 1 and Headingley on November 8.

This being a Saints-focused blog we will start with the news that five of your Saintly heroes are included in Wane’s selection.  Well, five if you still class Morgan Knowles as a Saints player.  Knowles and Jack Welsby are a given but there are also places for Daryl Clark, Matty Lees and Alex Walmsley. 

Mark Percival’s exclusion might surprise or disappoint some Saints fans but it is hard to make a case for him.  Even if he is fit, which he blatantly isn’t.  Even a fully fit Percival would struggle to hold down a place ahead of blubbing sore loser Harry Newman or Burnley-born NRL Dolphin Herbie Farnworth.  

Percival’s best years are sadly in the rear view mirror thanks to his use as a battering ram over the last few years.  Also, he can’t pass to his left, so there’s that.  Scientists have yet to get to the bottom of the reasons why he was rarely used on the right by successive Saints coaches.

Harry Robertson is arguably closer than Percival right now.  The youngster has been playing at centre in Paul Wellens’ regime but many wise observers believe that his best position is at stand-off.  He faces stiff competition to get into the England side in that role with the likes of Mikey Lewis and George Williams in front of him. But surely his time is coming. 

In any case the inclusion of Saints’ current centre duo would have been overkill.  It's fairly remarkable that a side as ordinary as Saints have been in 2025 can supply as many as five players for the national team. It suggests that Wellens presided over a team that was significantly less than the sum of its parts.  And yet there were still those who wanted the club to give the former fullback another deal. 

Based on their own merits you wouldn’t begrudge any of Saints’ quintet a place in the 24 but their quality has not translated to on field success under Wellens.  Stodgy, tedious tactics, eccentric halfback selections and head scratching substitutions have all added up to make Saints a relative also ran this term.  And to a sharp exit for Wellens. 

Wane will be hoping that he can use these players to a little greater effect.  It is one thing having them look good against Salford and Castleford but the Kangaroos play a different sport to the likes of those clubs. 

That said it wouldn’t be a massive surprise if the starting front row was all Saints in the shape of Walmsley, Clark and Lees. Leigh’s Owen Trout and Wakefield’s Mike McMeeken look best placed to force their way in at prop with Litten very arguably a better option than 2014’s Clark. 

When you consider that Grand Finalists Hull KR and Wigan and third placed Leeds Rhinos provide only three each you might think Wane has become hypersensitive about suggestions that he would favour players from his former club.  Sean O’Loughlin would have been a late withdrawal anyway but Liam Marshall, Luke Thompson and Sam Walters can consider themselves pretty unfortunate.  Not so much Liam Farrell or Tyler Dupree.

My own affection for Thompson ended with Paycutgate and his subsequent scoot to Canterbury. But are we really saying that he’s not preferable to clubmate Ethan Havard or Leeds Rhinos’ Mikolaj Oledzki? And would the young, dynamic Walters not have been a better bet than veteran grub John Bateman or the once great centre and now slightly plodding back rower Kallum Watkins? And if not Walters then Junior Nsemba or Canberra Raiders star Matty Nicholson.

Champions Rovers have proven that they are the best team in 2025 three times over by winning every trophy available to them.  Yet they can only muster Joe Burgess, Mikey Lewis and Jez Litten in Wane’s selection.  No place for Dean Hadley, Oliver Gildart, Tom Davies or even Elliot Minchella. Likewise Leeds who provide only Newman, Oledzki and Watkins. 

There is the usual smattering of NRL based players. Unfortunately Victor Radley ruled himself out of contention following allegations of drug use. But Morgan Smithies was part of the Canberra team which finished top of the pile in the NRL regular season, while Kai Pearce-Paul is another ex-Wiganer who has become a regular in Australia.  

AJ Brimson might be a standout in a decidedly average Gold Coast Titans side but looks to be only versatile cover here. Perhaps Wane is worried about Jack Welsby’s fitness. The Saints fullback returned to action several weeks earlier than expected but didn’t ever really look at full throttle.

Dominic Young has been in the NRL since 2021 but his move to Sydney Roosters wasn’t a high point.  He was marched back to his former club Newcastle Knights earlier this year amid doubts about his ability to read the game defensively.  

Finally there is 32 year-old North Queensland Cowboys man Bateman.  He has plenty of experience but his career is winding down and there were more dynamic options available to Wane such as James McDonnell of the Rhinos, Nsemba or Nicholson.  

Bateman has to be among the most contentious selection although much of the attention has been on the omission of Jake Connor. The Leeds half is this year’s Steve Prescott Man Of Steel. In claiming that he did not care about the award and didn’t know how it was picked Wane showed fairly hefty disrespect. 

He also made himself look a bit silly and did so further by revealing that he didn’t know who was in this year’s Super League Dream Team. As an England coach you can choose to be influenced by these things or not. But showing ignorance of them is bad optics. Norra Good Luke, Shaun.

When you look at Wane’s squad any feint optimism you may have had may evaporate. It doesn’t look a match for the Kangaroos’ pack whoever you select. And if you lose that battle the quality of your back line can become an irrelevance. So too might Wane if he can’t at least keep the games competitive. 

Oh and do a bit of homework on UK rugby league awards just to help with the PR…

Wellens Out - Club Legend Completes His Final Set

With an air of inevitability it has finally been announced that Paul Wellens is to leave his role as Saints Head Coach. 

Even the man himself will have experienced little or no surprise at a decision which was arguably long overdue. And while the majority of fans have been calling for his departure it is one which is still tinged with sadness. For all his coaching shortcomings - which we’ll get to - Wellens remains a club legend. Just like his former teammate Keiron Cunningham before him a stellar playing career cannot be erased by an uninspiring spell in charge. 

If Wellens had lost every single game he had in charge it would not change the fact that he is a true great of the game. In nearly 500 appearances for Saints he won five Super League Grand Finals, five Challenge Cups and two World Club Challenges. Throw in the 2006 Man of Steel Award and two Lance Todd Trophies for Man Of The Match performances in the Challenge Cup finals of 2007 and 2008 and that’s quite a roll of honour. On top of that only four men have scored more than his 199 tries in Super League. His playing legacy is untouchable.

His playing days came to an end in 2015 after 17 years as a one club man. A persistent hip injury cut his final season short and ultimately led to his retirement. Since then he has been a fixture of the Saints coaching team. First as player performance coach under Cunningham before graduating to assistant coach under Kristian Woolf as Saints won an unprecedented four Super League Grand Finals in a row between 2019-22. 

When Woolf left for the new Dolphins franchise in the NRL at the end of 2022 many - including Saints CEO Mike Rush and Chairman and owner Eamonn McManus - saw Wellens as a natural successor. He already knew the club, its players and the system. Perfect, right? Well, you could have said the same about Cunningham and look how that turned out.

Wellens’ best moment as Saints boss came early. In his first competitive game in charge he oversaw an epic 13-12 victory over Penrith Panthers in their own stadium. It sealed a third world championship for Saints and gave us every reason to believe that the success enjoyed under Woolf could continue.

Yet in many ways it was Wellens’ dogged determination to stick with Woolf’s tactics which eventually brought about his undoing. That and - if we’re honest - a failure by those above him to understand that Woolf’s squad needed new blood. Recruitment since Woolf’s departure has been positively ghastly, while loyalty to fading stars has slowly eroded efficiency.

At times it has felt like the club has been asleep at the wheel during Wellens’ tenure. Resting on their collective laurels after those four dominant seasons under first Holbrook and then Woolf. The likes of Sione Mata’utia, Tommy Makinson, Regan Grace and even James Roby have not been replaced with anything close to the same quality. 

Meanwhile Konrad Hurrell has been allowed to hang around collecting his not insignificant salary despite playing on loan at other clubs and having represented Saints only once since June of last year. And that was against part timers West Hull in the Challenge Cup in February.

In some cases the replacements have been good but not great. And you can’t be expected to hit the mark with every signing you make. Matt Whitley is a totally different beast to Mata’utia while Kyle Feldt - initially viewed as a like for like replacement for Makinson right down to his age - has not offered the strong carries out of his own end that were a trademark of both the Makinson and the Woolf approach.

It wasn’t until the end of May that Saints signed a replacement for Hurrell. Deon Cross was brought in from crisis hit Salford. Cross is a good player and may have been a target previously. But his eventual arrival felt like opportunism born out of desperation rather than a well thought out plan. Dire need seemed to provoke it as Saints had previously had to use the likes of Dayon Sambou and Johnny Vaughan in badly patched up three-quarter lines. 

Even by season’s end Cross was largely utilised as a winger as Harry Robertson continued at centre. As well as the youngster has played there it doesn’t feel like his best position. A key weakness of Wellens was arguably his reluctance to trust youth in the halves. He preferred the creaking Jonny Lomax and the vanilla Moses Mbye to the prospect of Robertson alongside the emerging talent of George Whitby.

Whatever the personnel if you can’t deliver dominance and trophies as Saints coach then you’d better bring entertainment. Wellens demonstrably failed to do that through three joyless seasons. Dynamism in the attack was taboo as he persisted with the idea that set completion was all important. His post game blatherings were littered with accusations that his team had been impatient or had ‘tried to score on every play’ whenever a ball hit the ground.

Yet this is an illusion. Saints played five drives and a kick, conservative rugby as Woolf’s team had. The difference is that this team did it more slowly and still made as many mistakes as they might have done had they adopted a more expansive, offload happy style. 

The early signs are that there is an air of relief among the fans now that the decision has been made.  Previously there had been increasing hysteria on social media with every disappointing result. One of the biggest and not unfair complaints was about Saints’ inability to beat top three teams under Wellens’ tutelage. 

This season’s top three after the regular season were Hull KR, Wigan and Leigh. Saints have not beaten Rovers or Wigan since Easter 2024 and have yet to win at Leigh since the rebranded Leopards returned to the top flight in 2023. That kind of form is a source of embarrassment to over-emotional fans in the immediate aftermath of another loss. In cold light of day analysis it’s way short of what’s required to stay in the Head Coach role.

Of course the one thing that fans - myself amongst them - don’t always think through is what comes next if you remove the man in charge. At the time of writing there has been no announcement about a successor. If that is yet to be determined then perhaps the club were wise to stick with Wellens until the end of the season. 

The Super League format ensures opportunity remains even in a bad year. As long as you’re not bad enough to slip out of the top six. Would removing Wellens without an instant replacement - while still in with a chance of reaching the Grand Final however unlikely - have been the right thing to do? 

Breaking ties now gives the club time to make the right appointment and - if they do so promptly - gives the new boss time to consult on recruitment, implement their ideas and work on transmitting them to the players. The obvious problem is that it might be too late to act on recruitment with other clubs with more stable coaching situations having already made moves. Saints’ acquisitions of Shane Wright - more opportunism in place of genuine desire - and South Sydney Rabbitohs Jacob Host are not seen as massive improvements. Especially when you’re losing Morgan Knowles to Woolf’s Dolphins.

If recruitment of players is problematic there isn’t a massive list of possible coaching replacements being bandied about in the immediate aftermath of Wellens’ departure. So far only Salford Red Devils’ ex-Leigh coach Paul Rowley and former Saints prop and current North Queensland Cowboys assistant David Fairleigh stand out. His 2001 stint with Saints was a memorable one. His name comes up in any discussion of the best Saints front rowers of the Super League era. 

As a coach he has also assisted at NRL heavyweights Penrith Panthers and at New Zealand Warriors and Newcastle Knights. But his only Head Coaching experience is a five-year stint in charge of Cook Islands whom he led to their first ever victory in a World Cup game against Wales in 2013. It maybe sounds trite but expectations are somewhat higher in St Helens.

Meanwhile Rowley has worked relative miracles at Salford in recent years. Before this year’s financial meltdown made his job impossible he twice led the previously unfancied Red Devils to the playoffs. That came after twice winning the Championship with Leigh and also a stint with Toronto Wolfpack at the beginning of their rise through the lower leagues to Super League. 

My own preference would be for Rowley. That despite the fact that Fairlegh would get the drinks in if I bumped into him in town. My logic here is that this is probably not going to be a quick fix. Because of the age profile of the squad - a mix of talented youngsters on the up and decorated stars in obvious decline - it may take a few years to get the team back to where we would like it to be. An Australian NRL guy like Fairleigh might not stick around long enough to see the job through. Whereas Rowley - who hails from Leigh and has never played or coached in the NRL - might be someone who can offer real stability. Longevity even.

Despite the problems the new man will still have plenty to work with. In the likes of Robertson, Whitby, Jack Welsby and Owen Dagnall Saints have some serious home grown talent. Nurturing that and adding to it with smart outside acquisitions is the key. You need that blend. Rush’s assertion that 75-80% of the team should be homegrown feels overly ambitious at best. Penny pinching at worst. Not every academy product will be good enough to stick around. See Jon Bennison, Ben Davies, Sam Royle. 

Wellens leaves with our thanks for his efforts and - to my mind - his legacy very much intact. I would hate to see a repeat of we saw with Cunningham. The vitriol he received was one thing but the amnesia regarding his playing career and his overall contribution to the club was unforgivably tone deaf. 

Attitudes towards him are only just mellowing. This cannot happen again especially since so many fans ignored the Cunningham experience in calling for Wellens to be appointed in the first place. The lessons learned there will probably rule Lee Briers out of contention for the role. One day perhaps, when he has proven his Head Coaching chops.

For Wellens maybe a period of reflection before returning to the game elsewhere. Don’t forget he has never been a part of any other professional club. 

For Saints the hard work - and the rebuild - must start now. 

Saints 2025: Out Of Its Misery - Rebuild Required

Saints’ 2025 Super League campaign is finally over. And you would be forgiven for saying good riddance to it. On the face of it an eight point semi final loss to League Leaders’ Shield winners Hull KR isn’t a disaster. But it hides a multitude of sins. 

Saints trailed in fifth in the regular season standings, losing 10 of their 27 league games before the playoffs. They were 10 points adrift of their weekend conquerors who now meet Wigan in the Grand Final. When you look at it that way Paul Wellens’ side didn’t deserve a shot at the title any more than little known Philadelphia slugger Rocky Balboa did in 1976. But until now there was hope. 

Not helping Saints’ chances was the absence of two starting three-quarters. Kyle Feldt has missed both playoff games at the end of his debut season with Saints with back spasms. Meanwhile Mark Percival picked up a knee injury in last week’s miracle at Leeds. In came Jon Bennison - one of several leaving the club now - while Matt Whitley moved into the centres. Deon Cross filled the other wing spot with Tristan Sailor at fullback and a halfback partnership of Jack Welsby and Jonny Lomax.

In the forwards Headingley hero Shane Wright took Whitley’s second row spot. Noah Stephens was given a long overdue bench role ahead of Agnatius Paasi. He was joined there by George Delaney, James Bell and Moses Mbye. The latter pair along with Bennison and Morgan Knowles were fighting to extend their Saints careers. All will be elsewhere in 2026. 

Bennison’s last Saints hurrah didn’t last long. Just eight minutes in he got up from a tackle looking decidedly groggy as he contemplated playing the ball. The medical people did their thing before whisking him away for a head injury assessment. He did not return. 

By then there had already been a foreshadowing of what was to come. Joe Burgess broke down the left but his attempt to pass inside was smothered by Sailor. But it took a numerical advantage to give Rovers the push they needed to start the scoring. 

Jack Welsby found himself the last man as Jez Litten kicked ahead following Elliot Minchella’s run and offload. Slightly panic stricken, Welsby grabbed a chunk of Litten’s shirt as the pair raced to get to the loose ball. It may not have justified the dramatic fall offered by the Rovers man but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t a professional foul. Welsby resorted to cynicism having lost a bit of composure and paid the price.

As did Saints. As dubiously as they arrived Rovers posted eight points while Saints’ star man was in the sin-bin. The first two came from Artur Mourgue’s boot as the Robins went for goal from the ensuing penalty that came with the yellow card.

Having failed to heed the earlier lesson Saints allowed Burgess to roam free on the left again and this time he found Mikey Lewis for the game’s opening try. I say he found him. It wasn’t totally legal. You can apply all sorts of momentum related mumbo jumbo to the debate but it will still be hard to argue that the ex-Wigan winger’s pass was not forward. It just was. Significantly. 

And that doesn’t mean referee Liam Moore is corrupt or incompetent or a closet Erasure fan. It just means that in conjunction with his touch judge he made a bad call which unfortunately involved just about the only thing that persistent irritant video replay cannot meddle in.

It happens. There’s a good argument that he shouldn’t then be rewarded with control of the Grand Final this weekend. Especially when you consider his place of origin.  But he’s not going to turn it down if the RFL lack the imagination to think of someone more suitable. Which in the circumstances would be just about anyone who can get to Manchester and bring a whistle.

Moore and his flagger made the same mistake seven minutes later. Welsby had just returned from the bin when Oliver Gildart held off several challengers to just about keep his ball carrying arm off the ground long enough to feed his ex-Wigan teammate Burgess. But again it was forward. Plainly, undoubtedly, undeniably so. Mourgue couldn’t add the extras but at 12-0 we were already in that sort of territory where you were wondering whether Rovers had more points than Saints were likely to muster. 

Despite the injustice of those two tries I can’t sit here and reasonably argue that this was the reason for Saints’ defeat. They were dominated territorially throughout. Wellens’ side couldn’t manage a single play-the-ball in the Rovers 20 metre zone throughout the entire first half. A lack of go forward in the pack and a still malfunctioning halfback combo continue to blunt Saints attack. 

And Wellens appears to lack the nous or the inclination to do anything different to address the problem.

Saints actually won the second half 12-8. But this isn’t the other irksome rugby code which offers bonus points for things that are meaningless within the wider context of the game. And since there’s no tomorrow for Saints in 2025 we can’t even console ourselves with the idea that we have something to build on. Frankly the whole Wellens House Of Cards needs toppling. Send for Agent Rowley urgently. 

But the red vee briefly flickered. Cross was next to…er…cross as Saints enjoyed a rare moment of attacking cohesion. Daryl Clark, Lomax and Welsby were all involved before Whitley produced the kind of one-handed offload we have seen all too rarely in 2025. That fed Cross who dummied Mourge out of Sewell Group Craven Park and into Humber. Lomax’s conversion cut the deficit to a converted try. And for a fleeting moment you might have disregarded all of the evidence of this turgid season for long enough to believe that the comeback was on.

Yet any momentum gained seemed to be lost in Saints’ next serious attack on the KR line. Bell ill-advisedly passed the ball off the ground - a fact which was referenced by Wellens in his post game comments. You could make a case that the Hull-bound man - virtually ignored by Wellens until injuries bit later in the season - was being slightly singled out by his coach. Wellens also commented on Bell’s bizarre tackle on Dean Hadley at a time when the Rovers man was not even considering being in possession of the ball. They were a couple of truly odd moments to end a disappointing final season at Saints for Bell.

In between Bell’s pair of clangers there was another what might have been moment for Saints. Robertson - switched to the left flank to partner Sailor in the post Bennison reshuffle - appeared to be tackled in the air by Tyrone May as he leapt to challenge for Saints’ 746534th bomb of the season. Moore gave nothing and Saints did not challenge. It’s far from certain that the young star would have bothered the scoreboard had he not been taken out but it was just another example of how things often play out when you are fairly inept to begin with.

Wright caught Martin high and escaped both a yellow card and the concession of any points as the former Leeds Rhino - for so long a prolific goalkicker - took over the responsibility from Mourgue but fluffed his lines. Though not as badly as Saints who - fashioning much better field position as the game wore on - saw a promising raid obliterated by Welsby’s concentration deficient dropped ball. 

Thereafter Saints were extracted from their misery by Gildart. He added two more tries. First when Cross spilled a high ball under pressure from Burgess and then with 10 minutes left as the Saints right edge defence ran out of bodies. 

Saints being Saints - they raged against the dying of the light as Robertson got over to reduce the arrears. They almost didn’t even catch that break as Moore referred it for a possible - i.e. non existent - obstruction by Curtis Sironen. Along with Lomax’s second conversion the try brought Saints back to within eight. Exactly the number of points they conceded while Welsby was invited to leave the field and think about what just happened after his tug on Litten’s shirt. 

What remains now are a whole host of unanswered questions. With so many players either confirming their departures or off contract the much needed overhaul must begin. Wright and South Sydney back rower Jacob Host are a start in terms of recruitment but they don’t address the glaring problems in the front row and the halves which - even with more interesting tactics - would likely have killed Saints’ ambition stone dead in any case.

Knowles is the obviously seismic loss. He heads for the Dolphins in the NRL and leaves a whopping hole. In a stellar career with Saints Knowles made 246 appearances, winning four Super League Grand Finals, a Challenge Cup and a World Club Challenge. He tackles, he makes ground, he gets involved in Saints’ rare moments of ball movement and he haunts opposition kickers. You probably can’t replace all of that in one player unless you go big and spend on a proven NRL star. But with so many other areas of the team in need of improvement that looks impossible. 

So what of Wellens? It’s time for him to go. This column is not normally one for advocating job losses but at the end of a third underwhelming season it becomes hard to make a case for him to continue. It’s not necessarily that results aren’t improving - although they’re not against the likes of KR and the other top sides - it’s more that he’s getting the same results in the same tedious style. He’s wedded to a conservative style of play which - as  Kristian Woolf proved - is not enjoyable even when you’re winning. 

Wellens has been unlucky in that he took over at the end of a winning cycle. His squad comprises players who are either coming towards the end or are still maturing. There’s a dearth of quality players operating at their absolute peak. But he’s been guilty of sticking by players who have consistently served up the same unpalatable gruel at the expense of others with mega potential. George Whitby should have played more. Surely we are approaching the moment at which he gets a longer run. And at which Robertson should get a crack at what is believed to be his best position at stand-off. 

If Wellens is to go then the outstanding candidate to replace him is Paul Rowley. He’s endured a terrible year at Salford through no fault of his own as financial realities wreaked havoc. But if you cast your mind back to a year or two ago and the way he had the Red Devils playing - entertaining all around them while reaching the playoffs - he’s a perfect fit to my mind for what Saints should be. 

Fans of other clubs will no doubt observe the Saints followers’ discussions around moving on from Wellens after making the semi finals and think we just have first world problems. And it is true that if you’re a Castleford or Huddersfield fan you might reflect that you would be delirious with a semi final appearance. But it’s no more than par for a club like Saints in the Super League era. If we continue to accept it and the style with which it has been achieved it’s not beyond the realms that we could find ourselves in the lower reaches as those clubs have done in recent years. 

Decline is slow, steady and often unnoticed until it is too late. The road back to title standard could be arduous but that is not a reason to delay it. It must start this off season.