St Helens have appointed former Salford Red Devils boss Paul Rowley as their new head coach, following the departure of Paul Wellens.
Rowley joins the Saints on a three-year deal until the end of 2028, and joins the club with immediate effect ahead of pre-season.
Commenting on joining St Helens, Rowley said: “It’s a great privilege to be joining St.Helens, and to come to an environment and organisation that’s solid and proven in success. It feels like an exciting challenge for me, different in many respects, and I’ll be looking to step in to put my own stamp on things with positive changes and have a real influence.
“I’m coming in with an open mind and new ideas, but I want to learn about all the people involved at the Club – and I mean everyone, from the Boardroom, all the staff, and the supporters. Then I’ll back my judgment and experience, looking to progress, move forward and, ultimately, win things.
“Saints have set the benchmark for years in the physical battle. I want to work with that foundation, retain it, add more options in attack, and keep teams guessing. Being a top team in Super League means you have to keep evolving, and with the way I want to play, I believe St.Helens’ defence will allow me to add another layer to what Saints do really well.
“This is a squad that is evolving with young, talented players coming to the fore, who I’m really excited to work with, and who we will be patient with. That is something I am sure will continue to be the cornerstone of St.Helens going forward, and wanting to bring the best out of them is something I’m really looking forward to.”
Saints chairman, Eamonn McManus, added: “We warmly welcome Paul Rowley as our new Head Coach. He is both experienced and talented, and we feel that he is now ready to coach a leading club such as St.Helens.
“He is well aware of our objectives and our ambitions, and we consider that he is capable of achieving them.
“I’m sure that our fans will get behind him as we seek to get back to the top of the Super League competition. We wish him every success.”
While the appointment has already been met with excitement both within the club and amongst the supporters, Rowley has a big job on his plate.
St Helens are in the midst of a transition period, following their four successive Grand Final wins between 2019 and 2022. A large core of that playing group have now left the club, the latest being loose forward Morgan Knowles, with a fresh crop of academy graduates coming through the ranks.
In saying that, St Helens won a World Club Challenge in 2023, and made the play-offs in each of Wellens’ three seasons at the helm. But it’s clear to see the next step is winning silverware.
So, what does Rowley need to do to get them to that stage? Well, here is our look at the three key priorities for the new boss.
Spine combination
A major issue for the Saints last season was the consistent chopping and changing of their spine. They simply cannot afford to do that again this year.
To give Wellens’ credit, it was largely due to the sheer wealth of riches within those key positions rather than anything else, with the likes of Tristan Sailor, Jack Welsby, Jonny Lomax, George Whitby, Moses Mbye and Daryl Clark all vying for a spot, but still that inconsistency of selection led to mixed performances on the pitch. Looking at their final five games of the year, they deployed four different spine combinations, with only their play-off ties against Leeds and Hull KR seeing the same unit named. Rowley cannot afford a repeat of that if St Helens want to kick on.
The quality in the spine is still there, with only Mbye and Morgan Knowles leaving from that group ahead of 2026, but he needs to decide his best combination pretty early on and could be forced into some tricky conversations.
I get it, with both Welsby and Sailor being better full-backs than anything else, while Lomax will also want a starting shirt and Whitby is the new kid on the block looking to make a name for himself, but he does need to find a consistent, balanced selection and keep them together.
On paper, that probably does look like Sailor at full-back, with Welsby donning six and Whitby or Lomax seven, but it’s for Rowley to decide now. He has to find his best spine, and find it fast.
Attack, attack, attack
Building from that, St Helens’ attack could be set for a major revamp under Rowley. The spine issues probably didn’t help things last year, but Rowley’s appointment is a clear signal that there will be more of a focus on their attack.
While Matty Lees, Alex Walmsley and George Delaney will still be maurauding around the pitch again, they will likely become a more free-flowing, almost champagne side under the former Salford boss.
Just look at the work he did with the Red Devils. This year aside, Salford became known for their fast-paced attack and their intent to chuck the ball around, and it worked too. Even while key players like Tyler Dupree, Andy Ackers and Brodie Croft were headed out of the club, they cracked the top six in 2022 and 2024 while making a good push in 2023 too, based purely off their attacking exploits.
Be it through sheer audacity, clever reading of space or just chucking the ball around like they were playing touch and pass in a warm-up, Salford’s attack was their whole identity under Rowley, and that should carry over to St Helens too.
He already has the players in place to fit that system, too. When Sailor is on song, he can be a real danger ball-in-hand, Harry Robertson continues to make huge strides in that department and the likes of Welsby, Whitby and Lomax can all throw the ball around too.
It seems like the perfect appointment to unlock their full attacking potential.
Recruitment
As always, recruitment will be pivotal to any success Rowley will have, but he has to be smart with it. With all the stuff mentioned above, he needs to pick the right areas to bolster while still allowing those pre-existing combinations to stay intact.
Loose forward seems the logical place to prioritise, following the departure of Knowles to the NRL, while adding more depth to their front-row and outside backs division could also be a good shout. Hooker could also be an area to add an extra body.
But, he just has to be smart about it and not go in all guns blazing. St Helens already have a talented crop of youngsters pushing through, with Whitby and Robertson the figureheads of that, and Rowley has already proved himself as one of the best coaches to develop talent in the game.
He will likely put a lot of his faith in those young players to fill any voids, but he can still dip into the market to bring in a few extra bodies.
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