{"id":643584,"date":"2026-06-17T13:36:20","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T13:36:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/643584\/"},"modified":"2026-06-17T13:36:20","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T13:36:20","slug":"paul-rowley-explains-recent-call-to-leave-st-helens-fan-favourite-out-despite-electric-form","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/643584\/","title":{"rendered":"Paul Rowley explains recent call to leave St Helens fan favourite out despite electric form"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

St Helens head coach Paul Rowley has spoken on why second-row rising star Jake Davies has not been a mainstay in the team in recent weeks, despite huge fan clamour for the 20-year-old to play.<\/p>\n

Davies, who only turned 20 in late May, has made a total of nine appearances in Super League this year though he missed out in the Challenge Cup semi-final against Wigan Warriors and the loss to Castleford Tigers, whilst also being a bench option in three of his last four appearances.<\/p>\n

Thrust into the action due to a host of injuries in the pack, Davies grabbed his chance and ran with it earlier this season when he played from the bench in the round five win over Toulouse, in what was just his fourth senior appearance for Saints and his second in Super League.<\/p>\n

The then-teenager would score in four straight games against Catalans, Hull FC, Wakefield and York, which made his omission against Wigan Warriors all the more strange but speaking ahead of Thursday\u2019s defeat to Warrington<\/a>, Paul Rowley explained why.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s only a young lad. He\u2019s come from absolutely nowhere,\u201d Rowley admitted on Sky Sports\u2019 pre-match coverage.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think with any young players, and we\u2019ve got more than most in our team, so Jake Davies came from nowhere. He got a great introduction, a few things off in one of his games we picked up on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brad Arthur commits to Leeds Rhinos, Hull KR lose back-to-back and Captain\u2019s Challenge rule debated \u2013\u00a0Click here to listen to this week\u2019s episode of the Serious About Rugby League Show<\/a><\/p>\n

St Helens protecting Jake Davies<\/p>\n

Explaining why minutes became more limited in recent weeks, Rowley pointed to the experience in the position, stating: \u201cWe\u2019ve got great back rowers at the club, and it\u2019s like everything else really. Shane Wright, Whittles [Matt Whitley], Siro [Curtis Sironen], he\u2019s got some competition there.<\/p>\n

\u201cA young kid coming in just doesn\u2019t command the spot, and you\u2019ll see that in any team across Super League. When the starters are in, then you\u2019re going to pick the starters.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rowley conceded that leaving the 20-year-old out has been tough but he explained that it\u2019s more about protection of Davies than a reflection on his performances, with Thursday\u2019s being solid as he made 32 tackles, third only to Joe Shorrocks (47) and Daryl Clark (45).<\/p>\n

The St Helens boss admitted: \u201cIt\u2019s tough to leave him out, and I want to put him in, but there\u2019s a progression, there\u2019s a development, there\u2019s a protection of him as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t want to wait until he has a stinker to leave him out. We make sure he\u2019s dipped in when he\u2019s ready.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"St Helens head coach Paul Rowley has spoken on why second-row rising star Jake Davies has not been…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":643585,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-643584","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/643584","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=643584"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/643584\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/643585"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=643584"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=643584"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=643584"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}