Jon Wilkin comes up with the “Roby-Hastings scale” to determine how likeable a player is

Super League is full of characters and under IMG that is something the sport must emphasise.

Like any good story, Super League has its clean cut good buys and the loveable rogues, those players who when they play for your team you adore but if they play for a rival they wind you up in a unique way and that is all part of the pantomime of sport.

Speaking on The Bench podcast, Jon Wilkin came up with the Roby-Hastings scale to determine how likeable a player is with St Helens skipper James Roby at one end and former Salford Red Devils and Wigan Warriors halfback Jackson Hastings at the other.

“I was working out with players about being likeable and how being a good teammate is quite important. I was working out a scale to measure, like you’d measure how fast someone is.

“The heat of a chilli is the Scoville scale so I’ve come up with a scale to measure how likeable players are and it’s the Roby Hastings scale.

“At one end of it is James Roby and the other end is Jackson Hastings and we all sit somewhere in the middle of that scale.

“James Roby is one of the most likeable blokes.”

Then the man who replaced Hastings at Salford, Kevin Brown, said: “Jackson Hastings is a nice fella.”

Wilkin replied: “Yeah he is, it’s a cheap shot isn’t it, a real cheap shot.”

Brown then joked: “You wouldn’t say it to his face.”

Only for Wilkin to finish off the discussion with: “Well he’s 10,000 miles away, he probably says it to himself.”