SAINTS packmen Joe Batchelor and Matty Lees have been selected for their first World Cup - and, although he will be on the opposite side with Tonga for the tournament, Kristian Woolf could not be prouder at the way they have developed.

The pair join fellow Saints Jack Welsby, Morgan Knowles and Tommy Makinson in Shaun Wane's 24-man squad that kicks off the delayed event in Newcastle against an NRL-packed Samoa.

They are sure to come across Woolf's formidable Tonga side if they are to go all the way to the Old Trafford Final in November.

But when asked about the pair's progress specifically, he could not be prouder at where they sit now.

He said: "I am extremely proud of both of those guys. And proud that I got to play a little bit of a part in helping them achieve that.

"Matty Lees, if you go back to 2019, and the injuries that he had and at that stage was a bit of a lightweight front rower, who knew how to play really tough but was raw around the edges.

"Compare that to the way he played in a Grand Final a week ago, for me he was the best middle forward on the field and is so deserving of an England call-up and I am so glad he has got that opportunity.

"It is a real credit to his resilience, his toughness and how hard he has wanted to work to improve his game."

Batchelor, 27, has been something of a late developer since joining from York, via Coventry.

He is a player who has kicked on to another lever this past 14 months. 

"Joe Batch is just as remarkable as Matty in terms of his story," Woolf said.

"When I first arrived here in 2020, in Round 2 we had seven of our key players out when we played Warrington and he got a run.

"At that stage of his career he was not quite a Super League player for that kind of game.

"The way he has improved is to his credit and he stuck to it that year and continued to develop and at the end of that year I told him he might be best off moving to the middle forwards because I thought what he lacked in terms of an edge back rower he could make up in his work ethic and his desire to scrap and work really hard in the middle.

"That was the track that we started to take him down.

"But a couple of injuries in 2021, just before the Challenge Cup, and Sione Mata’utia’s suspension before the Challenge Cup Final opened that up opportunity.

"He was outstanding in the Challenge Cup Final and from there he has not just kicked on, but he’s improved immensely in every opportunity he has been given.

"I look at the player he is now and how well he does so many things and when he is given opportunity with a bit of space, how well he handles that and how well he handles situations like the semi-final against Salford when he gets a short kick or a late pass off Jonny Lomax. That is about class but then he backs that up with his work ethic, toughness and his defensive resolve – all those things.

"I am really proud of the footballer he has become as well as the person he’s become.

"That is the really rewarding part of where I get to sit. I get to see bloke like that develop into the elite players that are and they deserve every success."