James Roby appointed to new coaching role at St Helens

It wasn’t to be the fairytale ending for James Roby in 2023 in his retirement season, however it’s been confirmed that he won’t be leaving St Helens with the club appointing him to a coaching role.

Roby hung up the boots after the semi-final defeat to Catalans Dragons, unable to head out with a fifth consecutive Grand Final victory.

Regardless he will still go down as one of the greatest players to ever grace the English game making a record number of appearances in Super League with 495 appearances in his 551 game St Helens career.

As such he holds invaluable experience and now that he has hung up the boots the club have smartly made sure to keep him in house by appointing him to the role of ‘leadership, culture and performance’ coach.

The news was confirmed via the club who released a statement announcing Roby’s new role.

It read: “Following an illustrious 20-year playing career for his hometown club, James Roby continues his association with St.Helens R.F.C. as part of the Club’s staff.

“After 551 matches, Roby played his final match in October 2023, finishing with an astonishing six Super League championships, four Challenge Cups, eight League Leaders’ Shields, and two World Club titles to his name.

“Widely regarded as ‘The Greatest Of All Time’, the 38-year-old has proudly served club and country with distinction, and is one of the most highly respected rugby league players in history.

“Roby’s new role will see him continue to be closely linked with the First Team playing squad as part of Paul Wellens’ coaching staff, but he will also be linking up with many other areas of the Club in his working capacity.”

Speaking about the news Roby told saintsrlfc.com: “First and foremost I’m another coach around the place to help with Paul Wellens, Laurent Frayssinous, Matty Smith, and the other coaching staff. I’ll be taking the lead on the things we do as a team that deal with our values, our culture, and the leadership aspect of that.

“I’ll be mentoring some of the players to a degree, and from a performance mindset, I’ll be doing individual one-on-one coaching where we will focus on people as an individual, trying to just squeeze a little bit more out of them if we can by a different approach.”

The statement continued explaining: “Roby was not short on offers at all for the next chapter of his life off the field as a player, but continuing to be a key man at the Saints was a significant draw.”

Roby noted: “St.Helens is home for me and I’ve had a very lucky 20-year career, come to the end of that, and it is a little bit scary at times. You think about what’s next and what to go into and I explored a lot of different possibilities and opportunities but in the end, this role became available. To stay in the environment that I know, I’m very familiar with all the staff, and all the players, it’s a very easy transition for me as a retiring player.

“But this is also a role that I’m really passionate about. It’s a role where I really want to add value and make a positive difference. I’m ambitious, just like I was as a player, I’m ambitious to succeed in this new role.

“I’m very open to learning, I know that I’ve got a lot of sort of upskilling to do and things that I’ll learn on the go or on the job but I’m welcoming that challenge and embracing it. The challenge of working with these professional athletes day in and day out, trying to squeeze a little bit more out of them, that extra percent, it really excites me.

“We’ve got a very strong and stable culture that has been developed over many, many years and if you look at our trophy cabinet, this club is built on success. It’s built on hard work, and honesty, there are a lot of attributes that go into it and good people make good cultures. Part of my job will be to maintain that.”