Paul Wellens teases groundbreaking new tactic as spine dilemma addressed

St Helens coach Paul Wellens has not ruled out the prospect of effectively playing with two fullbacks at the same time to accommodate Jack Welsby and Tristan Sailor.

Sailor was once again sensational on Sunday afternoon as the Saints made it eight wins from their last nine games with a big win over Huddersfield Giants to move up to third in the table.

Sailor has been at fullback since Jack Welsby’s hamstring injury – but the England international returned from the bench on Sunday and came on at fullback, with Sailor going to hooker.

Wellens revealed post-match that the Saints have now considered lining up in attack with such a shape that both Sailor and Welsby would attack from fullback, giving them an extra dimension and giving them a dynamic that few teams have incorporated before.

“We looked at that as an option,” Wellens said. “We practiced in the week with that but we thought the least disruption the better.

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“We’ve got a game on Friday on a short turnaround and I didn’t want to leave Daryl Clark out there for 80 minutes. We adopted for the simpler approach.”

However, Wellens also refused to rule out the prospect of either Welsby or Sailor starting from the bench, with hooker Daryl Clark able to feature for a full game.

“Possibly,” he said.

“We looked at something today. Jack is a vitally important player for us and needs to come back into the team but you see the work Tristan is doing and he was exceptional today. I’ve got to watch it back and look at things but it’s certainly an option what we did.”

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