2026 St Helens squad Paul Rowley has to pick his team from

The need for another big man – one who can bring size and aggression to put a dent in the opposing defensive line – has been evident for a couple of seasons.

Although Alex Walmsley, who missed just one game last season, had a fine year and that was underlined by his metre making stats there were times last year when the bench lacked size and punch.

That was apparent when Walmsley left the field, although coach Paul Wellens tried to mitigate that by playing him multiple stints.

Of course, in Noah Stephens Saints have a young prop who is maturing with each experience and after recovering from a long lay-off with a broken thumb the now 21-year-old was picked ahead of Agnatius Paasi for the play-off semi-final.

Paasi’s future has yet to be officially announced – although he was not listed in the end of season departures his absence from last week’s string of retention announcements of Daryl Clark, Matt Whitley, Jake Burns, Jake Wingfield and Curtis Sironen leaves it still up in the air.

Regardless, Saints definitely have five props in England packmen Matty Lees and Walmsley, plus Klemmer, Stephens and George Delaney.

Out of the middle unit, there will be a massive Morgan Knowles-shaped hole in the line-up for next year unless a rabbit can be plucked out of the hat.

There is no shortage of round-peg-into-square-holes solutions with Lees’ similarity to the way Knowles leads the defensive line being one proposal to fill the void with a more leftfield one being shunting England full back Jack Welsby there as occurred on one occasion last season.

Often that latter one is proposed as a cop out on making a call on the 1, 6 and 7 rather than looking at what a modern loose forward brings.

Saints have Jake Wingfield and the promising Leon Cowen who can both be nurtured into the role without being expected to replicate what Knowles brought.

Elsewhere in the pack Jacob Host is effectively a replacement for Hull FC-bound Joe Batchelor.

Shane Wright’s conversion of an initial loan deal to a two-year contract is a replacement for James Bell in the back row – although he has mostly played in the second row he has played some games at prop with Salford.

Wright joined towards the end of last term when Saints de-registered Konrad Hurrell, who went the full year without playing Super League.

Hurrell’s place in the first team at centre was effectively taken by teenager Harry Robertson and until a vacancy appears at 1 or 6 then it seems likely that that situation will continue.

Apart from Knowles, Hurrell, Bell and Batchelor other players from last season’s starting squad who won’t be on the roster next year are Jon Bennison, Moses Mbye, Tee Ritson, Will Roberts, Dayon Sambou, Jonny Vaughan and Ben Davies.

Davies left for Oldham early on in the campaign after - like Hurrell - playing just one game in the cup game at West Hull.

Ex-Salford three-quarter Deon Cross was effectively a replacement and he was much needed given the injuries to wings Kyle Feldt, Lewis Murphy and centre Robertson.

A cluster of three-quarters have moved on – Ritson, Bennison, Sambou and Vaughan – but of those only Bennison featured significantly last term with 15 appearances.

The rapid advancement of teenager wing/centre Owen Dagnall had seen him rise above those in the first team pecking order and would have featured for longer but for a couple of leg muscle injuries.

Dagnall can play centre and wing - and you would expect him to be a strong contender to be a first choice pick next term.

Three quarter wise new coach Paul Rowley has Feldt, Murphy, Dagnall, Robertson, Cross and Mark Percival to select from – but as last season showed it is still vulnerable to injuries striking, which meant Matt Whitley had to play centre in the play-offs.

Another three-quarter is required to add depth, although there is also the option of Sailor on the wing in an emergency depending on what happens at 1, 6, 7.

Moses Mbye moves on – but the continued progress of George Whitby as a 7 and Jake Burns as an interchange 9 covers those bases.

There have been 11 departures from last year’s initial squad – albeit only four or five of those being regulars.

So far only four have been incoming, expect some of that slack to be taken up by the elevation of youngsters – including some of those who were in last season’s squad in the 30 numbers like Ciaran Nolan, Alfie Sinclair, Jake Davies and Cole Marsh.

As a top squad goes here is what Rowley will be looking at, with the big question mark being over him settling on his 1, 6 and 7.

St Helens 1-17 options for 2026 Super League season.

1. Welsby or Sailor.

2. Feldt.

3. Robertson.

4. Percival.

5. Dagnall/Murphy.

6. Welsby/Sailor/Lomax/Robertson.

7. Whitby/Lomax.

8. Walmsley.

9. Clark 10. Lees/Delaney/Klemmer.

11. Sironen.

12. Host/Whitley/Wright.

13. Lees/Delaney/Wingfield/Wright.

14. Sailor/Lomax/Burns.

15. Wingfield/Wright/Host/Whitley/Cowen.

16. Stephens/Klemmer/Delaney.

17. Stephens/Klemmer/Delaney