James Roby: 80 minutes away from making Saints history at Grand Final

It is understandable. For a sport like rugby league, so eager or maybe even desperate for a different story to tell the world, the talk of potentially of a new name on the trophy from beyond the M62 corridor has made folk outside of St Helens excited.

But the story Kristian Woolf’s crop of 2021 are set to write tomorrow night, and the history they could make, is even more worthy of headlines.

To win the double – no mean feat – would be the first time Saints have managed to take out both major prizes since 2006.

But real club history could be made on Saturday night should Saints win the title for the third year in a row.

Skipper James Roby, who has led the team to the two previous successes, is only too aware of how huge the three-peat would be, taking it to a dizzy height to where even the teams skippered by legends like Alan Prescott, Vinty Karalius, Alex Murphy, Kel Coslett and Chris Joynt could not scale.

Roby said: “The story behind Catalan and Toulouse both doing well and the growth of the game in the south of France would be brilliant for the game, but we are not really too bothered about that on Saturday.

“We will just have to get our own house in order and perform like I know we can.

“The three-peat is there and an opportunity in front of us.

“It has took so long to get here – to put ourselves in the position to be 80 minutes of winning three in a row.

“It is a lot of hard work, commitment and sacrifice – a lot of people throughout the club in general, including some not involved with us as the minute who have been and gone.

“It is really special and we are aware of that – and will do everything we can to achieve it.

“The double almost gets forgotten because the talk is the three-peat but to win cup and Super League in the same year is no mean feat and not done very often.

“But it is one we are aiming to do and one we would be very proud of as a group of players.”