St Helens’ James Roby: ‘There’s been a nagging feeling, that I can go again’

James Roby can now do his shopping around St Helens in peace – for the next 12 months anyway. It is rare any piece of news comforts the blow of a derby defeat for Saints supporters but hours before the reigning Super League champions fell to Wigan on Friday, the news Roby had decided to postpone his retirement by one more year took the edge off.

“It has been a relief to get it out there, I won’t lie,” he says. “Every time I’m out and around the town, people are asking me what I’m doing. Am I retiring? Am I going around again? I’ve just had to smile and tell them I wasn’t sure.

“It is nice to get it out in the open but it took so long to decide because it was a decision that was about more than just me. It was about doing right by the club and the supporters.”

Roby, who broke Kevin Sinfield’s Super League appearance record in June and turns 37 in November, had intimated at the beginning of the year this would be his final season as a player. “That wasn’t a lie,” he says, smiling. “I made it clear to everyone, including the club, this would be the last dance, so to speak.

“But I’d assumed that throughout this year, my body would be telling me it was time to quit and in truth, I feel good physically and mentally. I really thought I’d struggle but there’s always been a nagging feeling telling me I can go again, prove people wrong and reach a few big milestones along the way.”

Next year will be Roby’s 20th as a professional, a staggering achievement for a player who rarely misses games. He should surpass the great Kel Coslett’s record of 531 appearances for St Helens and Roby says: “That was definitely hard to resist.”

“In the back of my mind I knew if I retired at the end of this year I’d fall just short. On one hand, does