ST HELENS head coach Paul Wellens has taken up a new international coaching role that will see him reunite with former Saints boss Kristian Woolf.
Woolf went down as one of the Merseyside club’s greatest ever coaches following three Grand Final successes and one Challenge Cup triumph, but left Saints at the end of last season to become assistant coach of The Dolphins in the NRL.
Wellens, meanwhile, who was assistant to Woolf for three years, was appointed head coach ahead of the 2023 Super League season but will now reunite with Woolf at Tonga.
“I’m obviously pleased to work alongside Woolfy again. He is someone who started as a work colleague just over three years ago at the club, but over that period he has become someone I consider to be a close friend so when he offered me the chance to work with him again I did think long and hard about it,” Wellens said.
“It’s about the different challenges it presents and one of the factors why I want to do it is to work with Kristian again. There is the other side of it as well to do something a bit different and exciting.
“Having worked with a number of Tongan players within this squad I know how much Tonga means to them, so it’s one I’m looking forward to.”
Of course, Tonga will take on England later in the year in a series of Tests.
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