
St Helens coach Justin Holbrook heaped praise on talismanic captain James Roby after he inspired the Saints to another dramatic victory on Friday and leapt to the top of the Albert Goldthorpe Medal table.
The Super League leaders remain six points clear at the summit after withholding a spirited fightback from Wakefield to emerge 34-30 victors.
Roby again starred for the Saints and, after playing over an hour in high-altitude in Denver six days earlier, he delivered another all-action 80-minute display on Friday which did not go unnoticed by Holbrook, with League Express awarding three Albert Goldthorpe Medal points for his performance.
It means that Roby now has 20 points and has overtaken his team-mate Ben Barba, who is tied for second place with Wigan’s Sam Tomkins on 19 points, with Warrington fullback
Stefan Ratchford in fourth place with 18 points.
Holbrook paid tribute to all his players who had turned out for England in Denver.
“The England guys were huge,” said Holbrook.
“I said before the game that they had the option to have a rest and it would have been okay if all of them wanted to, with the time difference and altitude.
“But they all wanted to play and were all fantastic, in particular Robes.
“Nothing fazes him does it? I wanted to give him a rest in the game and couldn’t, and he’d play tomorrow if you asked him to.”