ST HELENS went down 16-12 to Wigan Warriors last Friday night in a highly-entertaining affair.
However, at a time when both teams were out on their feet as time ran down, Saints boss Paul Wellens had still only used 15 of his 17 players available to him.
Both Jake Burns and Sam Royle failed to enter the field during the 80 minutes and now Wellens has revealed why.
“It’s not something as a coach I am usually comfortable with doing,” Wellens confessed.
“I like to use all of my changes where I can but obviously, at the moment in time, where we are down is through our middle unit.
“So I could have played Sam Royle in the middle as a prop, but ultimately he’s not a prop forward. So having brought Agnatius Paasi off, he had recovered enough to go back on.
“I might as well put a prop back on into their natural position and I did the same with Noah Stephens after.
“I decided to keep rotating the middles there and obviously that was taking up the interchanges which would then impact somebody on the bench maybe not getting on.”
Wellens insists that both Royle and Burns are in contention to play against Warrington Wolves this weekend.
“That’s how the game went, but I’ve not lost any confidence in Royle and (Jake) Burns). They are both brilliant lads who are in contention to play this week.
“I’ve got no qualms in using them but I just needed to get my middle rotations right at the weekend to keep the middle group fresh as I’m asking a hell of a lot of them.”
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