SAINTS welcome back James Roby for tomorrow night’s top of the table clash against Warrington – and it tees things up nicely for a duel with the pretender to his crown as Super League’s best nine.

Wolves’ hooker Daryl Clark won the Man of Steel award last term and then stepped into the England spot vacated by the Saints number nine for the Four Nations trip Down Under.

The clash between the two should be intriguing – but Saints boss Keiron Cunningham does not look past his own man as being the best of the British nines.

Roby returns after sitting out the trip to Widnes to allow a sternum injury time to recover.

Cunningham said: “Robes was rested for a reason and his body was more than thankful.

“He gets through a lot of work and for me he is man of steel of the round every week and how people are picked Man of Steel ahead of James Roby I will never know.

“I know I am biased but as good as the kid is, Daryl Clark cannot do what James Roby does every week. I couldn’t do what James Roby does and I was a good nine. There is no other hooker in the comp can do what he does every week.”

When Roby first broke on to the scene he was largely used to inject some pace from dummy half after Cunningham had taken the opening fire of the first half an hour.

He will also face the man he replaced in that impact role – Micky Higham – on Thursday and it is fair to say both have developed significantly from simply being quick dummy half runners.

Roby – Saints’ Mr Perpetual Motion - has the full tool kit with a workrate second to none, a fine kicking game and an ability to hit the right man with the key pass.

Boss Cunningham paid tribute to his former understudy as a player and a person.

Cunningham said: “You have just got to admire Robes.

“Greg Inglis is a freak of rugby and James Roby is exactly the same who goes above and beyond what he should be doing and does it to a high standard.

“He is a pleasure to work with, but he just takes it all in.

“When I was playing I watched every other match here on Sky and every NRL game.

“Robes doesn’t do that – he has not got a clue about what is going on in the wider rugby world. He just turns up, plays his game and runs his body into the ground and then goes home to spend time with his family.”