Leeds Rhinos have allowed Derrell Olpherts to leave the club in a transfer to Wakefield Trinity for the rest of the season.
Olpherts joined the Leeds Rhinos at the end of the 2022 season from the Castleford Tigers on a two year deal with an option for a third.
However, only months into the second year of his deal with the Rhinos he has been allowed to make a transfer over to Wakefield Trinity.
This came after he scored on debut against Warrington Wolves last year as well as scoring a memorable try against Catalans Dragons in an impressive win against the French side at Headingley.
He struggled with some injuries and being on the back foot in some difficult team performances last year and now he has missed the start of this season through injury and in search of game time has pursued.
Reasons behind shock Wakefield Trinity transfer
Speaking after the news of his departure, Rohan Smith explained the move:
“Yeah, it’s one of those circumstances I guess in professional sport where a player had an opportunity to be elsewhere and play more game time and perhaps secure a longer term future. So it sort of coincided with the emergence of some of our younger players coming through the group and we’ve got a lot of faith and hope in the players that are coming through and with David Fusitu’a back in a couple of weeks. So we feel like we can accommodate that.”
Smith added: “Derrell played some big games last year, he had some moments. As we all did last year, it was a difficult circumstance. Quite often this year he’s had a good pre-season and he played quite well in the friendlies. Just unfortunate injury, gave another player the jump to start the season. We’ve been reasonably stable and consistent as a team so far, so I haven’t looked to disrupt that at this point. So I can understand an experienced player wanting to get more game time that I couldn’t guarantee in the short term.”
Leeds Rhinos set for further transfer business?
This raises the question, would Leeds Rhinos look to recruit in response to this news? The obvious thing would be to sign an outside back to replace Olpherts especially with David Fusitu’a still injured and having a reputation as being injury prone.
However, some fans would like to see a prop drafted in especially with some of their injury problems in the front row.
That being said, Leeds seem set to trust youth for now and keep their cap space available for something they need urgently.
