SHANE WRIGHT is very happy he received a Super League lifeline from St Helens, having been ready to pack his bags and return home last year.
The Australian forward has been an ever-present starter for Saints this season as he settles into his two-year contract.
That’s in contrast to what he describes as a “rollercoaster” 2025, with the first eight months spent at crisis club Salford Red Devils.
Players and other staff were paid late on multiple occasions as that club spiralled towards eventual liquidation.
Wright joined Saints in August, initially on loan, and in only his second appearance for the club he scored a try which will go down in St Helens folklore, winning their play-off eliminator at Leeds Rhinos after the hooter.
“It was a very surreal moment, especially after the year that I’d had with Salford leading up to that,” Wright told League Express.
“It was cool to get on the rollercoaster and enjoy that moment. I’ll remember it for the rest of my life, and it was obviously a great start to my time at St Helens.
“It was crazy. I came to the club on the deadline day. In my head, with all the stuff going on at Salford, I was getting ready to go back to Australia.
“But then Rushy (Mike Rush, then St Helens chief executive) rang me and it happened really quickly.
“It was a rollercoaster – one minute I was thinking of flying home, the next I’m at a club competing in the finals.”
Another play-off campaign is the target for Saints, despite a positive start to life under new coach Paul Rowley being shattered by Friday night’s 52-10 defeat to Hull KR.
Rowley stuck it out with Salford until the end of last season and Wright said: “He was trying his best to make it work back there.
“He’s earned his stripes a bit and he’s been given an opportunity he deserves.
“The boys have bought into what he’s about and the attacking style he likes his teams to play.”