FORMER Castleford Tigers and Featherstone Rovers favourite Jesse Sene-Lefao has revealed how, when he left the latter, two Super League clubs showed a keen interest in signing him.
Sene-Lefao, of course, first came to the UK back in 2017 to sign for the Tigers – a decision that perhaps even he would never have dreamt it to go so well.
The former Samoan international became a cult hero amongst the terraces at the Jungle, helping Castleford to their first-ever first-place finish as well as their maiden Super League Grand Final.
Leaving the West Yorkshire club at the end of 2021, Sene-Lefao signed for Featherstone in a bid to help the club earn promotion to Super League for the first time in the summer game.
However, Rovers underachieved, missing out on a Grand Final spot as Sene-Lefao left the club at the end of 2022.
Having said that, there were still plenty of sides wanting to snap up the infectious character – even in Super League.
“Once I left Featherstone there were a few clubs interested in me,” Sene-Lefao told League Express.
“I spoke to the old club where it all started off – Castleford were definitely in there. Me and the Castleford coach Radders (Lee Radford) get along pretty well.
“Then there were talks with Wakefield and then their coach got sacked. It was a bit up in the air but there was nothing there concrete. Wakefield are still signing players now!”
Sene-Lefao did, however, express just how grateful he is to have met with the Sheffield club and believes that the vision is one that both he and the club share.
“It was pretty easy to make my mind up once I met up with Sheffield. I had one meeting with them and it was pretty much done then.
“I’m really grateful for being a part of their club – their vision is very clear to me and I’m very grateful to be part of that vision.”
