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St Helens Rugby Football Club, nicknamed Saints, are a professional rugby league club from St Helens in North West England who play in the Super League and were a founder member of the Northern Rugby Football Union. They have been league champions on 12 occasions and runners up 12 times and are the second most successful side in the Challenge Cup with 12 wins from 21 final appearances placing them behind only rivals Wigan.
In the 2011 season, Saints broke with tradition by moving out of St Helens and playing at the Halton Stadium in nearby Widnes as construction of their new home, Langtree Park, took place. Saints played their first game at Langtree Park in January 2012, a friendly match against Widnes.
When Rugby League moved their season to summertime with the start of Super League in 1996, Saints racked up an impressive success rate on the field. However, they been unusually bereft of silverware in recent years: their last success came in the Challenge Cup when they won the 2008 Challenge Cup, thus retaining the cup for a third successive year, by defeating Hull 28-16 at Wembley Stadium with Wellens receiving the Lance Todd Trophy for his Man of the match display. They last won the Super League title in the 2006 Super League Grand Final, again defeating Hull FC, but have since lost five consecutive finals: four to Leeds with the other being to local rivals Wigan in 2010. They won the League Leader's Shield an unprecedented 4 consecutive times in Super League—between Super League X and Super League XIII.
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