Still one of the best No 9,s in the game, he doesn’t hit those 150 to 200 metres anymore but he still hits 50+ tackles and his pass selection is much better towards world class standard.
Josh Hodgson is our international player and plays in the NRL is he world class, Roby is more effective than Hodgson in his distribution for England every England coach has recognised that.
Lots of fans say: Houghton (defence) + Clarke (attack) = James Roby

"lots of fans"?
where can I see this mass adulation of Roby, read it for myself.

It's a good job the VAST MAJORITY os Saints fans aren't as arrogant as the few idiots trolling on here.

Not arrogant at all, I,m just responding to the earlier post referencing to Roby being past it for the 3 years.
When in actual fact his overall stats over those 3 years have been superior to Houghton and Clarke, the only player matching him at the moment is Parcell.
A player who can win Man of Steel as a substitute, play over 30+ games as an international and hits the top stats for tackles and metres for over 10 years is an entity you don,t really treat with ignorance just because he plays for another club other than there own.

you have FACTS for the stat comparison, I'd love to read them.

Houghton's good, and pivotal to your team - but he is not in roby's league in my opinion. Roby is still the second best hooker in the league behind shaun lunt.

After watching both teams at CP recently should be a good tussle between you two, the thing with saints this year is that the average players in the squad are all performing well. Wilkin, peryoux, LMS, makinson, Amor - all look like really strong. Shutting down barba is the key, easier said then done mind.

It's like holbrooks coaching strategy is

run as hard as you can
play the ball as fast as you can
tackle as hard as you can.

So simple, yet probably the easiest way to get improvements from an underperforming group

They are the most NRL comparable team. Do the basics extremely well, durable and willing to go the extra mile. I think the 3rd game in 8 days is where you see who struggled over easter and with FC having 12 man deficit, then the tough game against wakey while in comparison saints at widnes was a bit easier i'd go for saints win by 12.

Yes they are all on the Betfred Superleague Web Site under the stats category, rather than cherry pick an individual stat to suit your own player judge them with Trys - Try Assists - Tackles - Tackle Busts - Metres Made - Clean Breaks as overall impact.

You can only do the last 3 years for Clarke, Houghton and Roby because Clarke wasn't up to the standard of Houghton and Roby before that.

When you judge the stats you can see Houghton is one of the best hookers in the game in defence with Clarke one of the best hookers in attack, I will let you judge the stats on Roby for both attributes.

Stats for a hooker never tell you the whole story though. The most important job for a hooker for example is their distribution and decision making. Where is the stat for that? I'm not saying Roby doesnt do those things well btw, just saying that you can't argue he is better based on tackles and metres made.

Roby is an outstanding player. One of the very best of his generation. If you argue any different then you clearly don't know very much about the game. He is the best hooker we have. Houghton is a close second. People see the number of tackles he makes and dismiss him as a workhorse, but he is so much more than that. Hodgson has done well in the NRL and got England caps because of it. But Roby and Houghton are both far superior players who would tear it up down there.

Lunt the best hooker in the leagu, not even in the top 5, Houghton, Roby, Clarke, McShane and Purcell off the top of my head are better than him.

Roby easily the best hooker in the league, I think most fans would agree even Hull ones. This wouldn't have even been a debate if that Saints fan didn't call Houghton overrated, probably the hardest working player in SL, who has been 8/9 out of 10 for the past 8 seasons, but finally got some recognition the day couple of years, a bit unlucky we have some good hookers.

you have that spot on, Roby is a great player, but Houghton isn't "overrated" by any stretch

I agree, there won't be a stat for that, usually that sometimes gets covered in the Man of the Match game award. On the distribution and decision making this was shown in the world cup with the usage of Hodgson and Roby, Hodgson would take the sting out of the game and then the England game would speed up when Roby came on with his quicker distribution and higher level of decision making.

We had a similar bit of banter with the Warrington fans over Clarke and Roby, Warrington sold Dwyer, which meant Clarke this season has had to try and do 80 mins and his game is suffering from it with missed tackles, errors and penalties. Houghton and Roby don't have that problem stamina wise, but we are seeing our coach resting Roby when the game is won to give him longevity in both defence and attack.

For us this season, with Barba being such an attacking threat the opposition don't try and mark Roby out of the game as much which helps to maintain his own personal standard.

Hope its a good game tonight, by the way.

Had to stop reading after that.

You did well!!
I stopped reading after "mean_machine wrote"

Barba missing tonight?

Yep, hearing Barba is not playing tonight. Roby to Full back, Fages in at 6

I bet Houghton could not play full back

Do you know if Roby can , moved him to fb to prevent houghton dominating him again . It's a game saints know they can't win , so have decided to rest barba, can't blame them

Fake news. He's just sick of st helens

Are Hull FC a top club? Many in RL call your club a Yorkshire version of Warrington. Many similarities.

Fans getting carried away with a few CC wins, always thinking they have great chance of being SL champions.Not been champions for donkeys years. Never won a World Club Challenge etc etc. You two do have plenty in common.

Lomax to FB and still Shaul won’t be the best full back on the pitch

I know but Jake Connor will be playing centre.

weak second row and bench tonight

1. Shaul; 24. Logan, 4. Griffin, 3. Tuimavave, 5. Talanoa; 6. Kelly, 7. Sneyd; 8. Taylor, 9. Houghton, 23. Paea, 17. Washbrook, 26. Lane, 20. Fash.

Subs: 13. Bowden, 14. Connor, 15. Green, 16. Abdull.

Weak bench?

1. Lomax; 2. Makinson, 3. Morgan, 4. Percival, 19. Grace; 6. Fages, 18. Richardson; 10. Amor, 9. Roby, 16. Thompson, 17. Peyroux, 11. Taia, 12. Wilkin.

Subs: 7. Smith, 13. McCarthy-Scarsbrook, 14. Douglas, 15. Knowles.

Connor and Abdul on bench says to me we're planning to chuck it around a bit

Hmm, missing Manu, Faraimo, Hadley, Minichiello (- massive ask.