SAINTS will use a mixture of the reserves and their dual registration partnership with Swinton to aid the development of the first team squad's younger players.

Out of the 33-man first team squad named for next year, nine members have made just one or two appearances at senior Saints level.

Having advanced through the club's academy system, those players will be keen to follow in the footsteps of Jack Welsby, Lewis Dodd and most recently Jon Bennison in advancing to the first team ranks.

This contingent includes Lewis Baxter, Dan Hill, Jumah Sambou, Taylor Pemberton, George Delaney, Daniel Moss, Ben Lane and McKenzie Buckley. 

Matty Foster, currently recovering from a second ACL surgery in as many years, will come into that category once he returns in mid summer. 

Coach Paul Wellens said the club was open to varying this collection of players' experiences as some of them continue to develop from Academy football.

Wellens said: "Our dual reg set-up with Swinton gives us an opportunity to send players to get gametime at a higher level.

"There will be a number of players who will want that opportunity as well. It won’t just be about what we want, but what Swinton want as well in terms of their squad – much of it will be about how we can help each other.

"Reserves rugby is another opportunity for them to play against older players and get used to playing against men where possible."

Wellens was hopeful that the Reserves competition could build on last year and increase the number of competitive fixtures.

"We hope that the Reserves competition can grow to give lads more competitive playing opportunities.

"We have taken on a few more part-time players for the reserves which will bolster the options there and provide other players opportunities within the Reserve ranks.

"We hope to get a competitive Reserves team out as much as possible," he said.

Last year Saints' first team suffered a significant number of injuries which had a knock on effect on the reserves.

"We dipped into the Academy there and a lot of Derek Traynor’s players played Reserves and it gave them an opportunity to play up.

"But in an ideal world we will keep as many bodies fit as we can to provide ourselves with a strong Reserves team," Wellens said.

The Saints coach re-iterated something that former boss Kristian Woolf used to comment on with regards to the value of the whole squad to the unseen work that goes on in traing.

And this work has been ongoing and a little unheralded at times.

"Those players provide the team with a certain level of training when they go up against each other, 13 v 13.

"It is a squad effort and a collective effort. The way these lads prepare themselves and train week-in, week-out to provide the team that plays at the weekend with a high quality training session is something a lot of people don’t see.

"That is the challenge for these players and this is where their opportunity to impress comes, along with playing in those games as well.

"I use Jon Bennison as an example of someone who applied himself on a consistent basis, someone who earned his opportunity through what he showed at training and when a position became available Jon got that opportunity through his work," Wellens said.