St Helens coach Kristian Woolf has backed young stars Jack Welsby and Lewis Dodd (pictured) to be his first-choice fullback and scrum-half respectively this season.
Welsby, 20, has starred mostly in the centres to date, making the Super League Dream Team there last year, but has been given the number one shirt for 2022 in place of Lachlan Coote, who has been allowed to leave for Hull KR.
Dodd, who himself turns 20 this week, broke into the team in the second half of last season in place of Theo Fages, and the Frenchman has now been moved on to Huddersfield Giants and the youngster handed the number seven jersey.
Those squad numbers reflect the faith being placed in the pair, and after two months of pre-season Woolf is only more confident that those players represent Saints’ present and future.
“Lewis Dodd finished the year as our halfback, he’s going to be our halfback this year,” said Woolf.
“He’s getting comfortable enough now to add his own bits to the team. I thought he had a tremendous impact last year and we’re only going to see a better and more confident Lewis Dodd this year.
“Jack Welsby fitting into that number one position and that’s where I think his best position is. He looks extremely comfortable there in training.
“He’s such a terrific player that I think wherever you put him, he makes it work.
“But when he’s in his most comfortable position, I’m very confident he’s going to make it work and work very well.”
Woolf is also confident that the thriving system below first-team level will continue to produce talented players like Welsby and Dodd, making his job of refreshing the squad each season much easier.
“We’re lucky in having such a strong Academy system,” said Woolf.
“Almost half (our additions to the squad this season) have come up through the Academy so that know what our culture is, they know what our habits are, they know what our expectations are.
“Most of them have done some training with us at times last year as well. They’re very aware of what’s required of them when they come into our group.”
Meanwhile, winger Regan Grace has been ruled out for the first month of the season with a bicep injury suffered in training.
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