Paul Wellens has revealed why St Helens let Lewis Dodd go

VaselineJuly 14, 2024

3 3 minutes read

Paul Wellens has revealed why St Helens let Lewis Dodd go

Wigan Warriors bounced back from rivals St Helens last night to win their 93rd derby of the summer, however the pre-game and aftermath focused on one man and why he didn’t play – Lewis Dodd .

Before the clash, it had been pointed out that each team would have a number of injuries, but both also had suspensions to overcome. Strangely, each team lost their prostitute at the Match Review Panel this week, with Brad O’Neill and Moses Mbye both handed B-grade charges and one-game bans.

St Helens appealed the decision twice and lost twice, painting a bleak picture of how their halves situation would look. As it happened, pre-season signing Daryl Clark suited up for the game and put in a huge effort to play the full 80 minutes, but the rest of the Saints spine was an unexpected combination.

Jack Welsby came into the halves, as he has done at times this season through injury, but last night he made the switch in favor of Lewis Dodd, who Paul Wellens confirmed has been dropped. Dodd is set to leave for the NRL at the end of the season, but Wellens’ bold call to drop him and give 18-year-old Harry Robertson a debut at fullback was one that raised eyebrows.

Incredibly, it’s one that almost paid off, with Robertson setting up Welsby for the opening try and the Red Vee only losing 16-12 in an incredibly hard-fought game. However, questions about why Lewis Dodd was dropped and how the Saints would have dealt with him have now been asked.

QUIZ: Match these 10 Rugby League photos to the correct year (very difficult)

Should Lewis Dodd have been dropped by St Helens or not?

Credit: Imago Images

The answer to whether and why Lewis Dodd was dropped was actually answered before the game, with Paul Wellens speaking to Sky Sports about his team selection. There were reports from fans that the young fly-half was involved in discussions with fans after the shock loss to Castleford Tigers last week, but Wellens played down the fact that he had asked the 22-year-old to “fix areas of his game”.

Speaking to Sky Sports, Wellens explained: “Lewis is a wonderful player and he’s a player that I and everyone at the club care about. There are just a few areas of his game that we feel he needs to improve on.

“Let me make this clear, Lewis is not in the squad because he is leaving at the end of the season. If he works out all the areas of his game that we want him to do, I think he could be a key midfielder in any part of the world he plays in.”

This was not a response that pleased all fans, with some still wanting to point the finger at Paul Wellens and blame that decision for the defeat, those fans choosing to ignore the huge list of unavailable players which included numerous international stars.

One posted on X: “Can’t help but think if Dodd had played tonight we would have won this.”

I can’t help but think that if Dodd had played tonight, we would have won this

— ash (@ash18282378) July 12, 2024

When the teams were announced, another posted: “I’ll put it out there now, not happy he left Dodd out, just the fans don’t like him because of the way he’s coached.”

Meanwhile, another X-user was clearly very happy that Lewis Dodd was dropped as he argued that the selected spine of Robertson, Welsby, Lomax and Clark should remain in place for the final 10 games of the season.

That spine of 1, 6, 7 and 9 must now be kept for me, we rather leave that bed this season than play Dodd

Much better and we could use that as Sky have already awarded the lot to Wigan this season 😂

— Liam (@liam_hefc) July 12, 2024