St Helens head coach Kristian Woolf has said announcements on his future and that of long-serving captain James Roby are drawing ever closer. Homegrown hooker Roby, 36, had been expected to retire at the end of this season, his 19th in the Saints’ first team.
As he continues to prove such an influential figure, though, speculation is mounting that Roby could play on for a remarkable 20th campaign in 2023. Woolf spoke about his effervescent skipper’s enduring class after Sunday’s 60-6 demolition of Hull FC, where Roby proved a typically influential figure.
“Robes is playing great and, as I’ve said all along, when he’s playing the way he is then he’s not going to get a tap on the shoulder from me,” Woolf said. “He gets to make his own decision and he’s earned that right with the 19 years he’s been playing first-grade – he breaks a record every week.
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“If we need to play him eighty minutes then he will do it and if we need him to play 50 minutes, like he did against Hull, then he will do that exceptionally. He’s a brilliant player and a brilliant person to be around, so when the time’s right for him he will come out and let everyone know what he’s doing.
“But like I said, there’s not going to be a tap on the shoulder from me. He gets to make that decision himself.”
Woolf is out of contract himself at the end of the season and has been tipped to take a job back in the NRL. He admitted: “A decision is getting close and I need to be able to give everyone some certainty as well.
“I think as a club we’re really comfortable with the whole situation and there has been some real open dialogue there, so I don’t think it’s been a distraction at any stage. Everyone is quite aware that I’ve got a couple of things that I need to sort out there, so that will certainly be sorted in the next couple of weeks.”
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