Josh Charnley explains why he left rugby union to join Warrington Wolves

Josh Charnley burst onto the scene at Wigan in 2011.

After a successful loan spell at Hull KR in 2010 in which he scored five tries in five games, he forced his way into the Wigan side as they looked to dominate Super League. He went on to score in the Challenge Cup Final that season before scoring 31 tries in 2012 as Wigan finished top. This was the third highest total yielded in a regular Super League season campaign at this stage and was even more impressive as it came on the right.

Charnley has spent virtually all of his career as a right winger and has scored tries for fun despite the fact it is traditionally left wingers who score the most due to the number of right handed players in the league which makes it easier to pass right to left.

In the following season he would be even more prolific scoring 43 times as Wigan won the double with Charnley scoring in his first Grand Final against Warrington. Now an England international, he would continue playing in the biggest games such as the 2014 Grand Final and the 2016 decider in which he scored the winning try.

That was he final game before switching to rugby union with Sale Sharks where he perhaps wasn’t given a fair crack of the whip.

Speaking on the Take Flight podcast with Mark Whittle, Charnley explained his frustrations at Sale and hinted at why he ultimately returned to Super League: “I didn’t think I got invested in, I just got left out there to train. In my last ever game for Sale we played against London Irish and it was a game where no one had to tell me I’d be in this position.

“I played a good game, I think I got Man of the Match and scored. I didn’t play then for seven or eight weeks and I went into the coach’s office and I was like, ‘what’s going on?’ and they were like ‘dunno?'”

After that Charnley returned to Super League with Warrington. He would play in both major finals after his return in 2018 again scoring at Old Trafford ironically in defeat to old club Wigan.

In 2019 he would get his hands on the Challenge Cup trophy again as Warrington defeated St Helens at Wembley.

Now in his fifth season with the Wolves, he continues to score tries for fun and a try in France against Toulouse earlier this year saw him become only the third player to reach 200 Super League tries and only just behind leading scorer retired Danny McGuire and Hull KR’s Ryan Hall.

Both are Super League legends and Charnley is honoured to be in the mix with them but stated he wants the number one spot: “Yeah for me to be up there with them is a massive achievement but my eye is set on number one.”

The full episode has yet to come out yet but you can watch this clip here.