James Roby has told the St Helens Star that while he is enjoying himself at St Helens, he is open to offers that would see him move to the NRL in the future.
Roby was offered that opportunity earlier this year by the Parramatta Eels but Roby claims he turned the deal down as it did not allow him to explore other opportunities, opportunities that have yet to reveal themselves at this time.
At 27 years of age Roby hasn’t exactly got all the time in the world to make a switch to the NRL. He is currently struggling through a season in which he has battled a number of injury problems.
James Roby’s career choices have been very strange to say the least. After impressing judges during Englands disastrous 2008 World Cup run Roby immediately returned home and signed a long term deal with St Helens. When the Eels offered him another opportunity to test himself in the NRL he turned that down too. The Eels eventually went on to sign Nathan Peats who in my opinion is a much better signing for the club.
Roby is an unknown quantity in terms of how he would perform at NRL level. I don’t think there is any doubt that he is under-skilled when compared to the top hookers in the game. When you keep that in mind, you have to wonder what type of deal Roby thinks he is going to be offered by an NRL club.
Why is any NRL club going to invest a lot of money on an old English hooker with no NRL experience that has struggled with injury problems over recent seasons?
James Roby may be waiting for a new opportunity to reveal itself, but I tend to think he may have simply let his best opportunity slip away.
