Rugby League Yearbook’s five personalities of 2023 revealed
ST HELENS’ James Roby heads the list of five personalities judged by the editors of the Rugby League Yearbook to have made the biggest impact on the 2023 season.
Roby is joined in the list by Wigan’s Bevan French, Leigh’s Lachlan Lam, Hull KR’s Mikey Lewis and London Broncos’ head coach Mike Eccles.
JAMES ROBY changed his mind about retiring at the end of the 2022 season and at the start of the 2023 campaign inspired his team to a momentous World Club Challenge win, defeating Penrith Panthers in their own backyard.
He made his debut in March 2004 off the bench in a game against Widnes at Knowsley Road, aged 18.
“It’s fair to say he was a scrawny looking kid. But looks can be deceiving as it soon became apparent his extraordinary strength and agility would mark him out as the perfect dummy-half for the modern game,” says Rugby League Yearbook co-editor Tim Butcher.
“It will be a different St Helens after the retirement of one of the club’s and the sport’s greatest servants. 551 appearances for one club. A Saints record and a record for Super League.
“Players like James Roby don’t come along very often.”
BEVAN FRENCH has made the list of personalities in consecutive seasons, forcing his way into the reckoning again after netting the Steve Prescott MBE Man of Steel Award as the game’s best player and finishing joint-winner of the Albert Goldthorpe Medal, with Warrington’s George Williams.
The Australian was ever-present for champions Wigan Warriors this year, lighting up Super League with his silky skill set, whether playing winger, fullback or stand-off.
His season began on the wing, where he had played as Super League’s top try-scorer with 31 in 2022, then, after six games, having nine games at fullback. After the return of Jai Field from injury in June and with Abbas Miski scoring tries for fun out wide, French was shifted to stand-off by Wigan coach Matt Peet.
The ploy worked a treat and French remained in that position for the remaining 15 games. Wigan won every league game bar one from that point, culminating in the 10-2 Grand Final win over Catalans.
LACHLAN LAM was at the centre of the rise and rise of Leigh Leopards. Another ever-present, his distribution, kicking and wicked sidestep created so many great tries. And his field-goal that won the Challenge Cup for the Leopards earned him the Lance Todd Trophy and a place in Leigh folklore.
The Leopards didn’t just buck the trend of promoted teams making an exit from Super League after one season – a fate they themselves experienced in 2017 and 2021 – they pushed the top clubs all the way from start to finish.
“There can be little argument that Leigh’s re-entry added greatly to Super League in 2023,” says Butcher.
“The people of the town bought readily into Leigh owner Derek Beaumont’s outrageous (at least that what’s most people thought at the time) re-imagining of the re-branded Centurions.
“Beaumont and Leigh coach Adrian Lam were strong contenders for the top five, and to be honest we had to get Beaumont’s leopard-skin suit somewhere in the book.”
When Tonga went into the first match of their historic tour of England it was thought they might be taken by surprise by England’s new halfback MIKEY LEWIS.
The Hull KR star was selected in the absence of captain George Williams, who missed the first two games through suspension.
Lewis didn’t let England coach Shaun Wane or his country down. He stunned the powerful Tongans, scoring a try and setting up another with two superb pieces of individual play in the first half of an eventual 22-18 win.
His performance in the second Test was good enough for some pundits, unsuccessfully, to call for him the retain his spot when Williams was cleared to play in the third Test.
Domestically, Lewis played a major part in Hull KR’s rise under coach Willie Peters, making 31 appearances and helping them reach the Challenge Cup Final and coming to within 80 minutes of the Super League Grand Final.
It was no surprise when, in November, the club secured their prize asset as he signed a new deal until the end of the 2028 season, not long after becoming one of four England players to be longlisted for the International Golden Boot award.
Combative and fearless with electrifying pace of the mark combined with a dangerous short kicking game, at the tender age of 22, Mikey Lewis has a stellar future.
That leaves promotion-winning MIKE ECCLES, whose profile amongst most Rugby League fans was, it has to be said, modest.
That changed in the last four weeks of the Championship season. The Broncos finished fifth in the table thanks to a late-season run, followed by thumping play-off wins at Sheffield and then at previously dominant Featherstone. Then in the play-off final at Toulouse, a comeback from 14-4 down for an 18-14 win stunned the French side. And just about everybody else.
Promotion was eventually won with a large core of southern, homegrown players. And the signings of former New Zealand international Dean Whare and ex-NRL star Corey Norman proved pivotal, Eccles moving smartly to sign the duo at the conclusion of the French domestic season.
“The Broncos were ranked 24th in the provisional IMG gradings, a kick in the proverbials, and somewhat at odds with a stated aim, as I recall, to have a strong presence in London,” Butcher says.
“There was disappointment at the club but a determination to improve in 2024. But Eccles and the Broncos face a huge test.”
