St Helens' rising star James Roby is the surprise winner of the 2007 engage Super League Man of Steel award.

Roby has made only 12 starts for his club this year but has consistently made a big impact off the bench, most famously in the Challenge Cup final against Catalans Dragons when he became the first man to score a try at the new Wembley.

A month away from his 22nd birthday, Roby is the youngest recipient of the highly-coveted award since former Great Britain captain Andy Farrell won it in 1996 aged 21 years and five months.

Roby got the vote ahead of Wigan's Australian stand-off Trent Barrett and club-mate Paul Wellens, the 2006 winner, and is the sixth St Helens recipient of the award in the last eight years.

Roby, who was short-listed for young player of the year 12 months ago, has featured at loose forward, stand-off and scrum-half this season but is regularly used by St Helens coach Daniel Anderson to rotate with hooker Keiron Cunningham.

He was judged by a panel of experts to have made the greatest impact on the season and received his trophy and a £5,000 cheque tonight at a glittering awards ceremony at Old Trafford, where he will return for Saturday's Grand Final against Leeds.

Barrett, who was last week named the Rugby League Writers' Association player of the year, received further recognition when he was voted the GMB players' player of the year in a poll of all Super League squads.

Anderson was named Super League coach of the year for the second successive season, ahead of Steve McNamara (Bradford) and Jon Sharp (Huddersfield), while Bradford prop Sam Burgess was named young player of the year.

St Helens-based Steve Ganson is referee of the year but he is not eligible to take charge of the Grand Final because rules prevent referees controlling matches involving their home-town teams.

Leeds were named club of the year for their all-round excellence in sporting administration, player development and marketing.

Hull centre Richard Whiting was named the Carnegie community player of the year and Leeds centre Keith Senior received a special award for becoming the first player to make 300 Super League appearances.