Head Coach Paul Wellens gave his assessment of our first Pre-Season game of 2024, as a young Saints side came off second best against the Swinton Lions.
The Red V boss said that the game can be a very valuable learning opportunity for the squad, and as long as the players that featured use it and learn from it, then it can stand them in good stead for the year to come.
Paul referenced George Delaney and said that looking at how he progressed by playing with Swinton on dual-registration last year. That shows just how valuable these games can be to the squad overall and Wellens went on to say he hopes that following this game Swinton will be asking for a few more of our lads to go and play with them.
The effort shown was the main area that pleased Paul, as everyone in the side gave their all throughout the game, and he singled out Jonny Vaughan saying he was really impressed with his effort and energy.
Paul said the players were certainly “rusty”, but that’s a given at this time of year, and the conditions didn’t help either.