'James Roby is in my top three as one of the greatest hookers of all time'
Knowing James Roby will walk out for the last time on St Helens turf today got me thinking about amazing hookers I was lucky enough to play with during my own career.
When looking at British ones, the top three - in no order - would be Robes, Jimmy Lowes and Kieron Cunningham with an honourable mention for Terry Newton. I was fortunate enough to play with Jimmy as I was coming through at Bradford. He was a super smart player, a guy who had the IQ of a half-back but the toughness of a forward and was aggressive with it, too.
He was such a competitor and one of the reasons Bradford were so successful at the beginning of Super League. I played with Cunningham for Great Britain and he was hugely skilled but very powerful running the ball, too, and such a talismanic figure.
Tez (Newton) was another exceptionally tough, fit hooker with great ball skills. Robes’ level of consistency is immense; everyone recognises that now.
His standards are so high and he’s nine out of ten every week, playing in an incredibly difficult position in the middle where fatigue can have a big impact on your performance. Yet it never seems to impact Robes.
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He’s such a high skill level and is such an honest character. They made a statue of Cunningham outside of St Helens’ stadium but you could easily put a case forward for getting another for Roby as he prepares to retire. If he reaches another Grand Final he’ll go past our joint-record of 11 appearances but that doesn’t bother me.
Records are there to be beaten. I can’t think of anyone better to do that than Robes. We’re fortunate in this country to have been blessed with some magnificent No9s - and these guys I reckon stand the test against the greatest of all time.
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