Warrington Wolves are hosting Catalans Dragons tonight at the Halliwell Jones in what is their first game since the sacking of Daryl Powell, with Head of Youth Development Gary Chambers leading the side tonight.
The club have slipped to sixth in Super League following their run of form and that ultimately saw Powell sacked from his role after less than two years in charge.
Justin Holbrook was the early favourite for the job with Warrington tabling him an offer, one that Holbrook accepted according to Sky Sports’ Brian Carney before Holbrook then negated on the deal to remain in Australia with his family.
It’s a massive blow for Warrington and it’s led to a new leader in the market with Sam Burgess a shock name as heavy favourite.
There’s another Englishman second in the betting though and that is Salford Red Devils head coach Paul Rowley.
Rowley has been priced at 3/1 and both Jon Wilkin and former Wire player Kevin Brown had advocated for him to take the role at the Halliwell Jones.
Speaking midweek on the Rugby League Verdict live on Sky Sports News, Jon Wilkin suggested that he had heard murmurings of such a move.
“I think the last few weeks a name that’s been mentioned to me quite often by a number of sources is Paul Rowley from Salford,” Wilkin explained.
“I know that won’t go down very well with people at Salford but obviously he’s doing a cracking job there.”
“I think they need a senior coach who’s been around the block, a Shaun Wane, a Paul Rowley, a Wayne Bennett, could they entice him over? They need someone who’s the biggest person out there,” Brown said as a guest on the Sportsmans’ ‘Last Tackle’ show,
Some Salford fans have since got worried with the speculation worsened by the fact that Rowley is at the Halliwell Jones tonight, as pictured by the Sky Sports cameras.
“Did I just see Rowley at the Warrington game or was it just me?”, one fan asked in Salford fan group on Facebook ‘The Shed Salford Red Devils“.
The actual reason for Rowley’s presence at the Halliwell Jones is that he is working on commentary for BBC Radio Manchester, so Salford fans need not be worried about the situation.
