SAINTS’ stunning World Club Challenge win over back-to-back NRL Premiers Penrith Panthers will have placed a number of the club’s stars on the radar of the cash-rich Australian clubs.

But that is something coach Paul Wellens is relaxed about - stating that the attention underlines that the club must be doing the right thing.

Although Saints’ crown jewels are currently under contract - the pervasive pull of the NRL is something that they, like all Super League clubs, have got used to living with.

That has intensified after the NRL’s 25 per cent salary cap increase to $12.1m compared to Super League’s static £2.1m plus a few incentivised exemptions - with an additional NRL club in the Dolphins adding to the demand for quality players.

Wellens dismissed talk that the trip, which saw them become the first ever St Helens side to win in Australia with victories over St George-Illawarra and Penrith, has his the players in the shop window.

He suggested they were already there, with their week-to-week performances during an unprecedented four-in-a-row Super League title success being transmitted across the rugby league globe.

Wellens said: “As a club we are in a position where we're winning year-on-year and have now gone out to Australia and performed really well.

“Hopefully you don't need to see Jack Welsby go out to Australia and do well to know he’s an excellent player.

“You can turn your TV on and watch Super League all weekend and you will see Jack Welsby performing to a very high standard - the same with Lewis Dodd, Mark Percival, Tommy Makinson, Jonny Lomax and James Roby.

“We have a lot of good players and I consider it a privilege that we're in a position where a lot of clubs on this side of the world would like to try and take our players because that means we're doing something right.”

Despite boasting a cluster of highly-coveted stars, Saints have largely retained their home grown crown jewels with the exception of James Graham in 2012 and Luke Thompson eight years later.

And while man of the match Welsby and match winner Lewis Dodd will have some Australian recruitment agents salivating, there was plenty more out there besides that pair of 21-year-old prodigies.

That was noticeable in the pack where Morgan Knowles brought his usual combination of industry, grunt and guile and Matty Lees injected a relentless pace into Saints’ carries. The list could go on.

However, coach Wellens explains that there is an additional element to the retention mix, one that to some extent goes beyond payslips.

Wellens said: “What we want to do is create an environment, and I feel that we're having real success with that at the moment, where these players want to stay and want to be a part of it.

“Rugby league is a game that can change down the track and I don't know the individual ambitions of every single player within our squad.

“But what I do know - to a man - is that they're all extremely happy, playing for St Helens, pulling on a Saints jersey, and coming over and performing like they did.

“And they're all looking forward to doing well again in 2023. And that's all that interests me right now.”