Newcastle sign young Castleford half

Newcastle Thunder have confirmed the signing of halfback Calum Turner from Castleford Tigers for the 2021 season.

A product of the Tigers academy and community club Lock Lane, the 23-year-old joins Thunder having made 15 appearances for Castleford.

Turner’s Super League debut came in try-scoring fashion back in 2018 against Hull FC and alongside his top flight outings, has played a further eight games in the Championship while on loan at Featherstone Rovers.

Turner follows in the footsteps of Thunder’s top try scorer in 2019 Kieran Gill in treading a path from Tigers to Tyneside and that is someone who the new signing spoke to at length to get the inside track when making his decision to move.

Turner said: “I spoke with Gilly quite a bit about the club and he loves it here. Also the club is trying to go in the right direction and get into Championship and then further on from that, so it seems a great idea to sign.

“I played at Cas for six years and fortunately got to play Super League with them, but I can’t wait to join Newcastle and to get back to enjoying playing rugby.”

Thunder director of rugby Denis Betts added: “Calum is a Super League standard player who harbours lots of ambition and a huge desire for success and shares the attitudes we have at the club.

“He’s a quality outside back, he can play at fullback, wing and even in the halves and he will bring further threat to our edges.

“He comes from a fantastic setup at Cas and I’m looking forward to him joining us for the new season.”