It’s always said that the game is bigger than any individual player who plays it.
But when it comes to James Roby, I think we have to think hard about that theory.
Roby made his St Helens debut in 2004 against Widnes in March that year at the age of 18.
He is now in his 20th season as a player and, apart from all his other records, he is now one of the few players to have been a professional Rugby League player for more than half his life.
And on Friday night, at the age of 37, he was making his last appearance at the Totally Wicked Stadium. He was also making his 550th appearance for St Helens.
I know I’m tempting fate by saying this, but I don’t think that record will ever be beaten, although if you are reading this article in the year 2073, you’ll have a clearer idea of whether it ever has been.
Roby is the last remaining St Helens player whose career began at the old Knowsley Road stadium.
It will be very strange for St Helens supporters next season to come to terms with James not being in the St Helens team and not being the captain of the side.
And it will be strange to see someone other than him wearing the number 9 jersey.
It’s a remarkable statistic in Super League that only two players have ever worn the St Helens squad number 9. Keiron Cunningham wore it for the first 15 years of the competition from 1996, with Roby having worn it for 13 years from 2011 onwards.
His colleague Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook, who also played his last game at the TW Stadium on Friday night before his retirement, also at the age of 37, made his St Helens debut in the 2011 Magic Weekend, which was played as the opening round of that season at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff. He featured at prop in the 16-16 draw against Wigan. It was the first season after the club moved out of Knowsley Road, so LMS never experienced playing at the club’s historic home venue.
James and Louie will retire as the two oldest players currently in Super League and, after their amazing service to St Helens, it would have been almost unthinkable for the club to lose this game against Warrington, to send them both out on a defeat.
And yet it wasn’t anything like as easy as I had anticipated, especially given the absence of Warrington’s two prop forwards Paul Vaughan and Thomas Mikaele, while Saints were able to select Alex Walmsley after his recent early return from a knee injury suffered in the Challenge Cup semi-final.
It was noticeable that they were led out by Stefan Ratchford, who looked remarkably relaxed before the kick-off, as though the Wolves had nothing to lose.
They were down 8-0 at half-time and it could have been far more if St Helens hadn’t had a fit of the dropsies at various times during the first half.
I anticipated that in the second half, they would come out and blow the Wolves away, but instead we saw Warrington equalise with a brilliant try from their young centre Connor Wrench, with was goaled by Ratchford, with the skipper then adding a penalty to put them level on 52 minutes. Could it mean that there was a shock in store?
Big games, however, often turn on individual errors, and the momentum turned St Helens’ way again a couple of minutes later, when Peter Mata’utia dropped the ball.
In what seemed like an instant, Jack Welsby kept the ball alive and Percival gave a superb pass to Tommy Makinson who touched down to restore a six-point lead.
Shortly after that, Warrington’s task was made much harder when Joe Bullock was sinbinned for his shoulder coming into contact with Matty Lees’ head.
And when Russell high-tackled Jon Bennison with ten minutes to go, Percival’s successful goal meant that Saints could at last breathe easily and their supporters could pay tribute to their departing stars knowing they wouldn’t see them on the pitch again at the Totally Wicked Stadium, but that they might yet see them again at Old Trafford.
In 2015 the iconic Kevin Sinfield played his last game at Old Trafford before going into retirement and held up the Super League trophy.
Will James Roby do the same?
You would be foolish to bet against it.
