Saints' Jack Welsby: Why we needed to re-invent our attack

Although for long the competition’s best defensive team, full back Jack Welsby says the focus in pre-season has been to sharpen up what they do with the ball and be more threatening in attack.

There was a glimpse of that in the pre-season friendly win over Salford, but Welsby knows the bigger tests are now to come as Saints begin the year in determined mood.

Welsby says the tweak to the attack is just part of the evolution of the club that has something of a new look to it - with the Super League trophy not the only long-standing fixture missing.

Welsby, who was recently appointed vice captain alongside Morgan Knowles, said: “A lot gets brought up about what we’ve done in the last four or five years, but we’ve lost players from that team – latterly Robes and Louie.

“We have got to redefine ourselves and move forward. We have got a good batch of young kids coming through and we have brought in some really exciting talented players.

“So it’s looking positive but and we’ll see how we go this week.”

Welsby already has positives experience of playing alongside new 9 Daryl Clark from their England days, and he welcomes the ex-Warrington rake’s presence in the Red V.

“Daryl is excellent and he’s going to add something different to us this year.

“Obviously James Roby is the best we’ve ever had so it’s going be hard for him, but he’s not replacing James Roby – he’s going to be the best version of himself.

“And I’m very confident in Daz - I wouldn’t want anyone else from the league to be our hooker other than him.

“He was our best option and I’m glad we’ve got him.”

Although noted for his attacking threat from dummy half, Welsby highlighted Clark’s inch-perfect delivery as equally devastating.

“It is something that probably goes unnoticed in his game when he’s such a running threat there, everyone’s worrying about him getting out of 9 and running but when he is throwing that ball and it is hitting you on the chest every time it makes it a hell of a lot easier for us half backs.

“He’s a welcome addition and someone I’m looking forward to playing with,” Welsby said.

It is an attack that has been thoroughly scrutinised by the coaching staff and players - and Welsby hopes that will pay dividends.

“We’re redefining ourselves and we’re reinventing our attack.

“We’ve done so much work on it this pre-season that there’s no excuses there.

“Each of us as half backs in each role and everyone outside of us also know their roles.

“It will be good to get it into a real life situation against London on Friday and then keep building week-on-week.

“We were probably the best defensive team in the comp last year and I think we have been for the last couple of years, but definitely offensively we weren’t up to scratch last year and there’s no hiding that.

“It’s not just a one person thing or one position thing, there is a whole team thing and we’ve also had some soul searching in the off-season and gone and built on that.

“We’ve done so much work on it that there are no excuses this year, so we’ll be ready to fire,” he said.

Saints play London Broncos on Friday at TWS - with a 8pm kick off.