St Helens captain James Roby has signed a new one-year contract to remain with the reigning Super League champions for a 19th season.

The 35-year-old academy graduate has spent his entire career with the club and he has made 485 appearances.

A figurehead in the St Helens side during his tenure, Roby has also won caps for England and Great Britain.

“I am very privileged to play here, to get up in the morning and do what I do,” he told the club’s website.

“As you get older you do think the end is near and I knew I was off-contract at the end of this year and thought this could be my last season,

“But I never saw myself playing anywhere else and if the club hadn’t offered me a new deal I would have called it a day.”

 
A St Helens legend, Roby has reached nine Super League Grand Finals with the club, coming off on the winning side four times including in the past two seasons.

He has been named in the Super League Dream Team six times and in 2007 won the World Club Challenge with Saints along with being named Man of Steel later that year.

Meanwhile, in the international game, James Roby has played for England at three World Cups and represented Great Britain during the 2006 Tri Nations.

Earlier this year, Roby scored a second-half try as St Helens defeated Castleford Tigers at Wembley to seal the fifth Challenge Cup of his career and first for the club in 13 years.