Leigh Centurions and Sheffield Eagles have mutually agreed to terminate their dual-registration, as the former have suffered numerous injury problems in recent weeks.
The club have recently loaned Nick Rawsthorne from Hull FC on a one-month deal, with options becoming increasingly thin ahead of the business end of the season.
Those circumstances paved the way for a termination of the dual-registration with Sheffield, who admit themselves they have not benefitted from the partnership as much as they’d have liked.
Lachlan Burr, Jamie Acton, Sam Hopkins, Dayne Weston, James Green and Lewis Foster all played for the Eagles during the first half of the 2017 Kingstone Press Championship season, but the troops are now needed to bolsters the Centurions’ ranks ahead of the mid-season split.
Leigh Centurions Owner Derek Beaumont said: “Life is about treating people how you want to be treated and Sheffield are coming into a difficult situation where we do not have the players available to assist them how they would like, which they understand. It is therefore important to enable them to form a partnership with a club where they can benefit fully from a dual registration agreement.
“The relationship is still very good with Sheffield and both parties benefited early in the season. However, we have had some bad luck with injuries, leaving us down to the bare bones and having to loan players in ourselves, which has practically made it impossible for both clubs.
“I would like to thank (Sheffield Eagles head coach) Mark Aston for the way in which he dealt with our players and wish him and the Sheffield club the best of luck for the future.”
Sheffield Eagles general manager Liam Claffey added: “We haven’t benefited from dual registration as much as we would have liked but that is not through the fault of anyone.
“Leigh have had quite a few injuries and so they haven’t been able to release players to us as freely as they would have liked. Credit to the Centurions though, they have been great throughout all of this and we’d like to go on record thanking them for agreeing to the partnership.”
