Roby Youngest Man of Steel in a Decade

Australian rugby missed out again last night as Wigan's former Test stand-off Trent Barrett was beaten by the young St Helens hooker James Roby to Super League's Engage Man of Steel award.

Barrett, who played 15 times for the Kangaroos before joining Wigan from St George Illawarra last winter, had been the strong favorite to win British rugby league's most coveted individual prize after carrying a struggling Warriors side for most of the season, and then starring in their play-off run from sixth in the table to within 80 minutes of the grand final.

But even though the 29-year-old was announced as a landslide winner of the Players' Player of the Year award at Old Trafford last night, and had already won the equivalent title from the Rugby League Writers' Association, the much lower-profile Roby denied him the main prize, which is decided by an anonymous panel of experts.

At 21, Roby became the youngest winner since Andy Farrell claimed the first of his two awards in 1996, and the sixth from St Helens in the past eight years. It will raise eyebrows as he has made only 12 starting appearances for Saints, with another 20 off the bench. However, that makes the impact all the more impressive as he has carried the ball 444 times for 3,303 meters - the most in the league - and his tackle count of more than 650 includes only a handful of misses.

Roby established himself as a rising star with four outstanding performances as an interchange hooker during last autumn's Tri-Nations series. Britain gave him a first Test start in the mid-season win over France, and will again look to him in this autumn's series against New Zealand.

Engage Man of Steel: James Roby (St Helens) RLPA/GMB Players' Player of the Year: Trent Barrett (Wigan) Young Player of the Year: Sam Burgess (Bradford). Coach of the Year: Daniel Anderson (St Helens)