Castleford Tigers head of rugby Jon Wells believes talk that his new role with the Super League club combined with his Sky Sports position being a supposed conflict of interest is ‘nonsense’.
Wells is a week into his new job with Castleford, where he will head up the Tigers’ operations moving forward.
He confirmed to TotalRL that he will retain his position with Sky alongside his new job at Castleford – and insists he sees no reason why the two roles will collide at any point.
“I take my Sky work extremely seriously and I think the two roles can compliment each other,” he said.
“I’ve heard plenty of people talking about a supposed conflict of interest, and if I’m honest I’d say that’s nonsense.
“We’re professional people, and you can wear two hats, there’s no problem with that. When I’m doing my Sky work, I’m fully impartial. When I’m doing my Castleford work, I’m fully behind the club. That’s basically how it will work.”
Wells played a pivotal role in the signing of prop Liam Watts last week, with the club made aware of the forward’s availability just hours into his first day in the role.
And he laughed that he may have been wise to call time on his employment with Castleford there and then having secured the coup of Watts, saying: “It’s been very busy, but very productive. It was an interesting first 48 hours, and my wife was joking that I should have resigned there and then having done my first bit of business, saying my work was done!”
And when asked what responsibilities he will be tasked with at Castleford, he said: “I see it as an evolving role but I’m going to spend lots of time learning from some good people already at the club, and find out what I can bring to the game.
“I think Daryl (Powell) is happy straight away because he’s got a fresh pair of eyes – not to help with the coaching, I’ll make that clear – but take the workload off him.”
