Savelio out to avoid second year syndrome
St Helens forward Andre Savelio had a breakout year in Super League last year and wants to maintain the rage in 2016.
Savelio, who made his debut for Saints in 2014, managed 24 appearances last season and became an integral member of the club’s forward pack.
The 20-year old scored two tries and set up two, and became a strong attacking threat with his runs and offloading ability.
His impressive displays saw him win the Albert Goldthorpe Rookie of the Year award.
Savelio came off the bench for St Helens in 2015 but has set his sights on a starting role.
“My goal is to start this year,” he said.
“ I spoke to Kev about playing a particular position. He’s quite behind me.
“Things are going well in training and he doesn’t see why I can’t play there and start.
“I want to continue with the minutes I was playing at the end of last year really, because I was playing big minutes at the end like 55 plus, so that would be good for myself.
“Just not get second season syndrome. A lot of people talk about that and I don’t want to be labelled as that.
“I just want to continue.”
Savelio has played for England at junior level and is one of the most talented juniors coming through the ranks at Saints.
St Helens finished one game from the grand final and one game from the Challenge Cup final in 2015, beaten by eventual treble winners the Rhinos in both.
But Savelio believes if Saints can keep a healthy roster then they can go one better in 2016.
“It was only one game away from either and only a matter of points for either side against Leeds, but I guess looking back we did ourselves proud,” he said.
“With the players we had missing and with the players coming back from serious injuries, Luke Walsh has just looked on-fire in pre-season.
“I don’t want to jinx him but when Jonny Lomax gets back on the field he’s practically going to be a new signing for us.
“Obviously we lost our two fringe back-rowers at the start of the year, Joe Greenwood and Atelea Vea, for a fair amount of the year and they were making 150 metres on the edge.
“If we can just maintain everyone keeping fit it’ll be good for us and hopefully get us over the line this year.
“We’ve recruited well with Theo Fages and Jack Owens, those two youngsters, and there’s two more experienced in Dominique Peyroux and Lama Tasi.
“So they’ll be good additions for our pack and out wide as well, depending on where Dom plays.”