England snub may boost Saints' campaign (From St Helens Star)

England snub may boost Saints' campaign

2:51pm Thursday 4th February 2010

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SAINTS’ long serving full back Paul Wellens says his failure to get an England call-up for last autumn’s Four Nations could be a blessing in disguise.

He is feeling fit and fresh after his first proper off-season break since 2003 – and believes the test selectors omission of colleagues Leon Pryce, Ade Gardner and Maurie Fa’asavalu could have a positive spin-off for the Saints.

The rock solid number one, who turns 30 later this month, aims to hit the ground running in 2010.

Wellens said: “Honestly, it has been great. From the moment I did not get called up for the internationals at the end of the year I took it as a blessing in disguise.

“I knew it would benefit me to get plenty of rest and a good pre-season.

“I had plenty of weights and running sessions, which at the time was not much fun, but now I am glad I have put in the hard work and am looking forward to it.

“It is amazing how much fresher I feel this year, in body and mind, because of having that bit more time away from rugby has enabled me to get in decent shape.

“There is not just myself in that respect – Maurie, Leon and Ade are in a similar boat after missing out internationally, and so hopefully we can all show we have benefited from it.”

The rest period has also meant that Wellens no longer needs surgery on a troublesome knee injury and he believes it has now settled down.

Although Wellens has not ruled out playing international rugby again in the future, any England hopes will have to be assessed at end of the year.

“We are at the start of a long season so I am just looking forward to playing well for St Helens. That is my objective and come the end of the season we will see where we are at,” he said.

Wellens made his debut in 1998 and became a permanent fixture as Saints’ last line of defence in 2000.

As one of the senior players, Wellens has taken on more responsibility with the departures over the years of leaders like Chris Joynt, Tommy Martyn and Paul Sculthorpe – but now expects some of the younger international players to shoulder more of the burden after the departure of Sean Long.

And he does not believe the latest high profile departure will leave an experience deficit in the Saints ranks in 2010.

“Younger players like James Roby, James Graham and Jon Wilkin will need to take on extra responsibility, but they are all seasoned internationals despite being relatively young.

“They are a genuine and honest group of players and we all know what to expect from each other with regards to performance, preparation and effort.

“There are some very competitive players here who want to do well for this club and that spreads throughout the squad.

“There is still a lot of experience here, with Keiron and Matt Gidley, who have bags of experience, so we won’t be short on that score,” Wellens said.

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