My Life in League: St Helens skipper Jonny Lomax shares his career story in his own words

Jonny Lomax has enjoyed a storied career with St Helens.
St Helens captain Jonny Lomax is the next guest on a new feature for 2025 on Love Rugby League: My Life in League.
Throughout the year, some of rugby league’s biggest names will be sitting down to discuss their journey in the sport. From the amateur club where their story began, to their childhood heroes and their standout memories on the pitch.
Lomax has had a stellar career at the very top of the sport, playing 350 games for Saints to date as well as 15 on the international front between England and Great Britain.
This is his story – told exclusively by the playmaker himself…
First club?
My first and only community club were Orrell St James. I was playing football and rugby alongside each other for quite a long time, but then my dad took me down to Orrell because that’s where he used to play.
It was basically just like a big game of tag to start with and I loved it.
Going down there when I was five, I wasn’t playing in my year, I played a year up with Matty Ashurst for a couple of years.
He moved on from Orrell, glory hunting! I dropped back down to my own age group then and there was five or six of us that did the same, so we had a really good team. We managed to stay together up until under-16s and we still try and go out a couple of days before Christmas every year.
First rugby hero?

When I used to go and play at amateur level, we’d train Saturday morning early on because we were the younger team.
I’d normally get home for the NRL and Brisbane at the time were fantastic, so I just remember watching Darren Lockyer. He was one of my heroes.
First academy coach?
It would have been Derek Trainor, who’s still at Saints now. I’m not quite sure how long he’s been there. I’m a couple of years short of him in terms of how long he’s been there!
I remember him coming scouting and then going on to the scholarship when I was 11.
I had a good relationship with Derek, I still do to this day and he’s someone I still think an awful lot of.
Mike (Rush) has now moved up into the bigger office, but Mike was involved around that time as well.
First senior coach?

Officially, it would have been Mick Potter, who was really good for me. I remember going back, I’d done my first ACL going into the pre-season and I’d have only been 17 going on 18.
We did a bit of fitness, we used to do two quite old school hill sessions. Sports Science has moved on thankfully in some ways, but back then, after I’d done a few with him he just pulled me and said I needed to go and put some weight on.
To be fair, I eventually plateaued into my weight and he wasn’t far off, but he was asking a lot early on to nearly put 10kg on!
Before that, at 16, I used to go in and train in midweek with the first team. Daniel Anderson was there at the time and he had quite an impact on me as well.
Debut?
My debut was Wakefield away in 2009. It was Mick Potter’s first game in charge and this was at the back end of March, so I was only about six months on from my first ACL reconstruction.
I was still in Sixth Form college, so I had to go down and ask for the day off so I could go and play.
Looking back now, my performance wasn’t perfect, we got the win but on the day you make your debut, you’re in a different mindset, as daft as that is.
Everything’s perfect because at the end of the day, it’s a dream come true. The longer I’ve played, the more I realise that you’ve got to remember those feelings because you can get caught up in the emotions of the game.
The reality is, that feeling of your debut is what it’s like every time you take to the field. You don’t quite have the same nerves with it, but you get to live your dream, which is quite a unique experience.
First senior try?

It was away against Hull FC playing on the right wing, and I scored outside Matt Gidley. I remember watching him on Saturday mornings as well, and he was fantastic for me – he had the ability to teach people during the game.
I’ve tried to take that on from him, giving people a tap and a one-to-one on the go during games, especially to the younger lads.
The grass had been pulled up that day at Hull because the football had finished, so I had some big scabs on my knees from sliding over in the corner!
First trophy?
We won the League Leaders’ Shield in 2014, so officially it’s that. We won the Grand Final as well that year, but I did my second ACL towards the back end of the season, so I missed the Grand Final. Even though I’ve got a winners’ ring, I don’t really class it.
The real first trophy I won, I’d say, is the 2019 Super League title because that was the big one.
We’d won the League Leaders again the year before, but when you win a Grand Final, you get that game and then you’re done for however long so you can switch off a bit more.
League Leaders, Challenge Cup, even World Club Challenge, you’ve got to go again the following week.
The trophy I see as my real first is the 2019 Grand Final for that reason.
Favourite game?

The one that stands out for me, and it goes above the feelings I’ve had winning stuff, would’ve been my return in 2016 against Leeds.
If I’m completely honest with you, I’d gone through a period thinking about retiring. I got infected during surgery, so I was in a bit of a state for a while and I was in a mindset to retire.
Coming back, playing in that game, scoring with my first touch was something that I have never come close to that feeling again.
Relief, emotion, everything, it was quite incredible for me.
The difficult bit is that it was only five or six minutes into the game, so I had the rest of it to play! I scored again, got to half-time, and thought job’s done because I’d been told I was only playing the first half.
They then left me back out for the next 40 minutes and we managed to win the game.
Coming off the pitch, seeing the support network – my now wife, my mum, dad, my sister – the people that had seen all of the rubbish with me in the months before, that was very emotional.
Having those moments with those people after the game is something that I’ve never been able to match again on a rugby pitch despite trophies and everything else.
It’s not always about the trophies, it’s about the moments you get to have with the people that matter.