WITH Jonny Lomax penning a new deal yesterday that will keep him him at Saints until the end of 2024, we have decided to re-run this interview from two years ago that gives an insight into his journey.


JONNY Lomax was a Saints fan long before he pulled on the red vee and will remain one even after he has hung up his boots – but the road to fulfilling his boyhood dreams has often been a rocky one.

The Billinger has overcome serious head and knee injuries to battle to the top of the 13-man code.

And even when the going has been good, he has still had the odd curved ball to deal with – but has tackled each of those with customary stubbornness and determination.

It is a fitting time to reflect on those things that have made him – and he has never forgotten his roots at Orrell St James, where it all began.

St Helens Star:

Lomax said: “I was taken down to Orrell and I ended up being with a great bunch of lads – we stuck it from under 5s to 16s – we still meet up for a beer every Christmas.

“It was good the way it worked – especially because Orrell was not always as fashionable as Blackbrook or Wigan St Pats.

“We managed to stay together all the way through. Although when we got to town teams we split half St Helens and half Wigan.

“With living in Billinge, but playing at Orrell I went to St Helens town team trials, as well as Wigan, but the boyhood dream was always to play for Saints.”

And Lomax was plotting a steady course, with representative honours at the age groups along the way.

But those dreams were nearly shattered for good in 2005 when he suffered a bleed on the brain, following a sickening accidental clash of heads while playing for Rainford High as a 14-year-old in the National Schools Cup – requiring a seven-and-a-half hour operation at Alder Hey.

Having spent the subsequent 13 years not talking about it, not wanting to be defined by that head injury, Lomax himself admitted that he has only really found out the full extent of this traumatic experience in recent months when he asked his family to write a piece for his testimonial brochure.

He said: “When I was younger all people wanted to talk about was my head – but the one thing I did not to want to ever be was the lad that had suffered the brain injury and people say ‘well done to him’.

“I wanted my rugby to come first and that stuff to be later on if I was able to progress.

“If I am honest I did not really understand, at the age I was.

“I obviously knew it was serious, and probably didn’t really understand how serious until I asked my mum, dad and sister to do a write up.

“When they spoke about it there were some things that I just was not aware of. There were some things that never really got spoken about.

“It was only when I watched the documentary on Michael Watson on the aftermath of his Nigel Benn fight, I saw the condition he was in and was told that he had had the same injury as myself – but his was a really fast bleed, whereas mine was really slow one.

“It was meant to be a three-hour operation, but it ended up being seven-and-a-half. If I had known all of that when I was younger it probably would have changed my mindset.

“Now it all makes sense that the surgeon said, no, you are not playing again when I initially asked.

“But being the stubborn 14-year-old at the time I just wouldn’t speak to the doctors and spat out my dummy and said: ‘I am’.”

St Helens Star:

“Eventually they said, ‘ok but it would be two to three years’, but 10 months later I was back playing.

“My family did not want me to play again – but I just wanted to get back playing and have a chance to fulfil a dream.”

And play on he did and he was soon in the system at Saints with injuries higher up in the system created an opportunity for Lomax in the 18s.

“It was a dream start for the 16-year-old.

“I scored on my first touch and ended up scoring three tries so then I stayed with them for the remainder of the year.

“Then I played reserves when I was 17. We used to be called the Jets – the young lads who would train against the first team, but you would get flogged as well. Apollo Perelini and then Matt Daniels, when he took over, ensured we understood how hard we would have to work to get where we wanted to be.”

An early hiccup in the reserves saw him damage his right ACL – but he re-doubled his efforts to regain fitness and get his foot in the door.

St Helens Star:

And in March 2009 Saints coach Mick Potter handed the then 18-year-old Lomax his chance at full back.

That year he played full back, wing, centre, nine, 13 and six.

“There was times I was thrown in a 13 to basically run around and be a threat.

“But it was all useful. You get an association of what the players want – by playing in their positions and being there,” he said.'

Those little things help you 100 per cent. And those little things help now I have gone back to half back – having an idea of where and when the full back is coming. It gives you a different idea of things.

He found himself learning alongside experience former NRL centre Matt Gidley, who taught him so much in a short period.

“Gids was incredible – he was individually brilliant.

“He had so much time for his winger in creating space, he was quite incredible.

“Even though I did not play outside him for that long I feel like he was a big influence on me in the way he held himself.

“He almost coached on the field when he had the ball – he had so much ability. One of my claims is that I set him up for his last ever try against Castleford at Knowsley Road,” he said.

He – and Saints – made Grand Finals in 2010, but both games ended in defeat.

St Helens Star:

The 2011 season in particular was a rollercoaster, with Lomax and Lee Gaskell guiding the Saints, playing all their games away from town, to the Grand Final where they led Leeds at the hour mark.

“When you get young lads in the team they gave you enthusiasm and energy, even if they don’t get it right with the gameplan.

“We gave the energy and we had some quality around us that allowed us to then play. It was a fantastic year – to get so close but for the injuries to happen so late was a nightmare,” he said.

Paul Wellens went off at half time, centre Michael Shenton dislocated his elbow and Lomax fractured his ankle on the hour mark, but played on.

It did, however, cost him a place in the England squad as his stock began to rise.

St Helens Star:

But in 2012 – a mixed season for Saints in which coach Royce Simmons was axed - the halves began to cop some flak, which stung at the time.

“My stats at half back that year were better than this year’s which is quite funny considering the stick I get.

“As a young lad I was getting some stick, but was not aware of how good my stats were at the time.

“There were – like now – things I wanted to work on. Because I was young it probably got on top of me a bit – as you get older you learn how to adapt and deal with it.

“It is definitely hard when you are getting stick as a young lad. Nowadays when you lose it hurts but I go home to my Mrs, reflect on going home to a healthy family, it gives you a bit of perspective on life but when you are a young lad everything you want to do is win, perform the best you can and your identity is dependent on that and so it becomes hard to cop the stick.

As you get older rugby is still as important as ever, but there’s people you feel accountable for.

“It is always the pivots who will get stick.

“The pack and outside backs get through so much work in yardage ­— if you are honest and do your job and have the enthusiasm to keep carrying the ball as hard as you can.

“But if you don’t get over the line it is put down to your smarts – it is always been that way.

“Look at Man United. Pogba is centre midfield and meant to pull the strings and when they were not playing well it is ‘Pogba is useless’.

“Now they have started playing well, ‘Pogba is incredible’ . You are in that position of people wanting more from you because if you perform better, the team does better. That is how you have got to think about it.

"The fans care. The difficult thing to get across sometimes is that we care too – I go home after games and don’t sleep - win, lose or draw. You can’t switch off. You end of sat on the settee playing Play Station till the sun comes up.

"First things first, I am a fan and then a player. And I will still be a fan long after I have finished playing."

However, things were about to change and when new coach Nathan Brown came in in 2013 and began to ruffle feathers, shifting Wellens from full back and slotting in Lomax.

“It annoyed me, if I am being honest, but it was something he probably had at the back of his mind anyway to do it that early.

“Then he put me there it went well with three tries at Bradford but then I got injured. In hindsight it was not good for me – given the injuries – but in some ways I got to play for England at full back,” he said.

Those two major knee injuries were devastating for him, effectively derailing his 2014 and 2015 seasons, costing him a Grand Final win, a place in the England squad and at one stages even making him question whether he could carry on.

“The first one – I knew what was coming because I had done it on my right knee and knew what was coming.

“I knew I would get it fixed, it would be hard work and it would be lonely in the gym.

“As I was getting back playing it was swollen a bit – but I kept playing. Then it went in the Wakefield game and I knew it had gone.

St Helens Star:

“Because of that I tried to keep running and pretend that it hadn’t. In some ways I was thinking if it has gone it could potentially be my last game.

“So I had the scan and they found out – and I put the phone down on Millsy (physio Nathan Mill) and started crying.

“My dad came in downstairs – and I had never said I would quit at anything – but said ‘that’s me, I am not doing that again, no chance’.

“And for the first time my dad looked at me and said, ‘OK’.

It was a long way back, even after the initial surgery, with infection taking a hold and a return to hospital needed.

“It was one of the hardest times I had gone through. Certainly harder than my head injury because I understood – I was 24/25 and may not have chance to play again in something I love to do. I had worked so hard and it was potentially gone. It was tough,” he said.

"In the end you know it is bad when the lads don’t give you too much stick because of how much weight you have lost. I must have looked awful.

"It was pretty tough."

More than 13 months later, Lomax returned in the home game against Leeds and the script was Roy of the Rovers stuff, carving through the middle for a long-range try before hoofing away all those pent-up feelings.

“It was a fairytale game.

St Helens Star:

“Everything happens for a reason and I don’t think anything would beat that feeling of scoring against Leeds. All that emotion came out and was released at once. For my family, close friends and the people that got me through it. Kicking the ball away, was a kind of release of happiness, joy and a bit of relief.

“I would never have had that moment if all those bad things had not happened. Not that I would advocate doing your ACL twice…It is hard to beat that as a highlight of my career.

“The club were fantastic in standing by my and that is something that I do my best to repay them every week, by my my professionalism, trying to do the right thing in training and set an example to the younger lads,” he said.

"You only have to look at the way Tommy Makinson has been since he has come back from his knee – the way he has been has been incredible.

"Although you are already professional you take it that bit further and it becomes a bit OCD.

"I have my own idiosyncrasies."

But with all going well - fitness and form wise ­— and Lomax back in the England reckoning at full back, he was about to be thrown a curved ball with the arrival of NRL superstar Ben Barba.

He said: "One of the lads texted me to ask why is Benny in our changing room?

"Going into that year I was off contract, I was wondering what was happening.

"But as we started training together and I moved to six.

"It was something I relished, moving back into the halves and something I like doing is prove people wrong..again I had that chance.

"When we started running plays together it was one of those where we were on the same wavelength and we could alternate our change plays on the fly with each other.

We got our combinations together and both realised we could benefit each other – and we did.

"It was definitely a curved ball at first, but I am pretty stubborn and like to prove people wrong with regards to not giving up so easily.

"My determination to keep my place is not a bad thing – if something is going to be taken away I am going to make it where you are going to have to make a tough decision. I was never going to rollover at any point.

"Even through the season, when I got moved from half to play full back, it was something else.

"There are some things that Benny does that are incredible, specific to him, but there was an aspect of me saying 'I lost this shirt and am going to put a marker down for this one too'."

St Helens Star:

And Lomax has certainly done that, this past two years helping guide Saints to two Grand Final wins....