Blake Austin “upset” with Leeds Rhinos after exit

In one of the biggest shocks of the season, Leeds Rhinos star and former Warrington Wolves halfback Blake Austin left Leeds Rhinos immediately to join Castleford Tigers.

It comes after Austin had made it clear that he wanted a new deal at Leeds as he routinely put the club under pressure for a new deal with red hot form and Sky Sports and JBK Show interviews.

Now, Austin has explained how his Leeds exit came about revealing there was no fall out but that he was upset at the situation with his contract:

“No, not that I’m aware of. Obviously, there was a bit of speculation as to why it happened.

“I received a phone call at 9.30pm on a Wednesday night. Gareth Widdop said, ‘are you interested in coming and giving us a hand?’

“I sort of said I’m not sure if Leeds will let me but the way my situation is I’m open to come in and help and if you think I can help, then yeah within 12-15 hours I was a Tiger.

“I wasn’t looking to leave, obviously I was a bit upset with my situation but I was fully focused on forging ahead for them for the rest of the year and yeah here I am.

“I guess in life all you can do is deal the cards you’ve been dealt. I think that’s a good lesson in all of it for myself.”

Asked about his future, he said:

“No, I haven’t. I was probably more stressed about the contract stuff six to eight weeks ago than what I am now.

“Obviously there’s only four weeks to go. I’ve got a couple of things in the pipeline but nothing set in concrete and I’m just enjoying each week as it comes.

“Obviously being at this place it’s something that’s really important and something I don’t look too far ahead because we’re only seven days away from being back in a real battle again so yeah it’s been refreshing.”

He also spoke about Warrington:

“It’s normally a pretty positive reaction. It’s a place I really enjoy going back to, not for the obvious reason I’ve got. I’ve got a lot of lifelong friends that I made there.

“I’ll never speak negatively about my time at Warrington. I thoroughly enjoyed it and still got a lot of mates and family friends back there.

“I just enjoy the opportunity to go back and see a lot of them. Obviously, going back to the Halliwell Jones and winning is enjoyable, but just seeing friends that I’ve made along the way.