Why Kevin Walters’ St Helens move could be pivotal for Jack Welsby

It certainly caught everyone off-guard – including St Helens’ players, if you believe the noises coming out of their camp on Thursday.

Kevin Walters will be the man in charge of the Saints for the next three seasons – providing all goes to plan – after the Kangaroos coach inked a long-term deal to move to Super League.

On the face of it, it is a headline-grabbing appointment. The current coach of the reigning world champions, potentially moving to St Helens off the back of delivering a Rugby League World Cup title. That is about as ‘status’ and high reputation as you can get.

Walters’ coaching record at club level does leave some questions to be answered – most notably at the Broncos, where he failed to make the NRL play-offs in three of his four seasons in charge – but the Saints were determined to make an appointment that made people sit up and take notice. That is very much mission accomplished.

But it is the finer nuances of this move which strike out as the most interesting. The noises are that Lee Briers, Walters’ trusted assistant at the Broncos for a period before he returned to Super League with the Saints, will be retained – again, a decision that will provoke plenty of debate on both sides of the fence.

While a glimpse into his time at Brisbane offers an early take on continuity being a theme in terms of Briers, it is that tenure which could also lead to significant change in other areas: with Jack Welsby the central point of focus again.

The debate about who should play fullback for the Saints was reignited again last weekend, when Tristan Sailor excelled after Jack Welsby went off with a HIA. Sailor was the game’s outstanding player in their win over Wakefield Trinity – and in truth, most of his best performances have come as a fullback.

Which is a problem, as we all know: because Welsby’s best position is also fullback. And his best displays also come when he is given an extended run in the position. The Saints backed themselves into a corner where that debate will continue at least next season after giving Sailor a long-term deal – a player Walters knows very well indeed.

Suddenly, the Saints have a coach and a player who are both under long-term contracts of the exact same length, while by the time Walters arrives in England in November, Welsby will have entered the last 12 months of his own deal and he can negotiate with other clubs.

That is not to say Walters’ arrival will directly lead to a Welsby exit, but while Sailor has been used as a utility player during his two seasons in England so far, there is strong evidence to suggest that will change under Walters.

He played 16 games under Walters for Brisbane; three of them were off the bench and the other 13? As first-choice fullback. It is clear Walters sees Sailor as a player who can produce his best rugby at fullback which, to be fair, the evidence has also backed up in England thus far.

Walters is being tasked with a long-term rebuild of St Helens, not a quick fix. That is partially because there is no quick fix here; there is major surgery required and it is going to take time and money to clear up the mess that has gradually appeared over the last couple of seasons.

Welsby, for what it is worth, may be happy to move positions for the good of the team. Walters may actually decide that the England star is still his first-choice.

But the evidence – and the long-term security Sailor has – suggests that it could well be a significant change looming on the horizon that may leave Welsby facing a fascinating future.