Paul Wellens will be aiming to square the ledger when he leads St Helens out against Wigan on Saturday for what will be a record-equalling 10th Super League grand final appearance.

The 34-year-old former Great Britain fullback will match Jamie Peacock’s individual record of playing in 10 Old Trafford showpieces as he bids to halt a five-match losing run.

“I’m very proud,” Wellens said.

“To be in the same company as someone like JP is tremendous. He’s someone I look up to and respect.

“Not many people play 10 years at the top in this game, so to be able to play in 10 frand finals is quite surreal.

“But I’m just as excited about this one as I was about the first one back in 1999.

“I loved my first four – I thought it was all plain sailing and then I lost five on the run so it just shows in this game that you can take nothing for granted.

“But what’s happened in the past will have no bearing on what happens in the 80 minutes on Saturday. There’s only me and James Roby who were part of the team that last won it in 2006. The players here are a very hungry, motivated group.”

Saints were many pundits’ tips to regain their title at the start of the year, but have defied all logic by reaching the final in the injury absence of influential playmaking trio Luke Walsh, Jonny Lomax and Jon Wilkin.

The versatile, evergreen Wellens deputised admirably at halfback for a time, but he was forced into his old fullback role when Shannon McDonnell broke his jaw towards the end of the regular season and coach Nathan Brown had to continue his tinkering in order to find a new winning formula.

That formula includes playing specialist back rower Mark Flanagan as a makeshift half.

“Huge credit has to go to Nathan Brown,” Wellens said. “When we lost those players, there were a number of us looking round the dressing room thinking ‘we’re staring down the barrel of a gun here’.

“Nathan devised a different way for us to play and shifted a few bodies around which took some getting used to but, the more and more we’ve worked on them in training, the more comfortable we’ve become.

“What has certainly helped us as well is having a number of good players within the group who are comfortable playing different positions – the likes of Mark Flanagan, Jordan Turner and Lance Hohaia are comfortable in different roles, which gives us that little bit of flexibility.”