FORMER Wigan Warriors and Wakefield Trinity star Ryan Hampshire has revealed that he almost joined two rival Super League sides whilst with Trinity.
Hampshire, a boyhood Wakefield fan, played 85 games in total for Wakefield over two periods, scoring 28 tries and kicking 129 goals.
However, the 30-year-old left at the end of 2021 after failing to agree a new contract at the time. He would subsequently join Castleford Tigers in 2022 and then Wigan Warriors in 2023 before exiting the latter at the end of last season.
But, throughout his time at Trinity, Hampshire recalls his contract issues at the club and how he could well have left for Huddersfield Giants and Hull KR.
“I can remember in 2019, I almost played every minute of every game and only missed like the last few minutes against London,” Hampshire told The Full Eighty Minutes podcast.
“And I got lowballed. Looking back now, some of the contracts I took I’m like ‘what was I doing’. I think they (Wakefield) took my loyalty for granted.
“I did stay loyal quite a bit, I had options elsewhere for a lot more money. Looking back now, should I have taken them? Financially, anyway.
“I had offers from Huddersfield and Hull KR.”
Hampshire’s agent, Craig Harrison of Show Me The Money UK, then revealed how the move to KR fell through.
“We got offered Hull KR and went to Michael (Carter, Wakefield’s chairman at the time) and Chezzy (Chris Chester, Wakefield’s then head coach ) and said ‘we were going to Hull KR’,” Harrison said on The Full Eighty Minutes podcast.
“Wakey were like ‘there’s no offer’, but I had it in writing. Suddenly, they knew about the offer at the same time as us.
“Tony Smith (then Hull KR head coach) rang – I think it was him – and said that they were dropping the money offered.
“Smith said that they had more or less found that Wakefield had offered us a certain price and then they only offered X amount.
“Out of pride, we rejected it.”
Hampshire is currently without a club after leaving Wigan.