Super League

Salford Red Devils’ Paul Rowley comments on Marc Sneyd’s exit, more departures and Chris Hankinson

by
Will Jackson
March 19, 2025

Salford Red Devils coach Paul Rowley on the sidelines

Paul Rowley admits he is trying not to think about the possibility of more Salford Red Devils players following Marc Sneyd out of the exit door. Last week Sneyd became the first Salford player to leave the club since the Red Devils’ financial issues came to light during the off-season.

The scrum-half has penned an 18-month contract with Warrington Wolves and he’ll be looking to make his debut for Sam Burgess’ side this week when the Wire take on St Helens. The move brought an end to his three-season stint at the Red Devils and the belief is that his exit could be the first of several in the coming weeks as the club’s financial issues linger on.

A raft of players have been linked away from the Salford Community Stadium, with the futures of Nene Macdonald, Tim Lafai and Brad Singleton uncertain, while Chris Hankinson has also been linked with a Reds exit. None of those men are included in this week’s 18-man squad to take on Huddersfield Giants in Super League and they could well leave as the club strive to remain compliant with the sustainability cap imposed on them by the RFL.

Rowley insists he isn’t thinking about potential exits, but he has also failed to rule out more departures.

“Every day as it comes, we’ll crack on with our game first,” he said when asked if there could be more departures in the near future. “If that occupies my mind then it’s not a healthy position for me to be in. I need to focus on the job in hand.”

Pushed on the situations surrounding Macdonald and Lafai, the Salford Red Devils boss simply said: “No update.”

The comments come just a week after Sneyd sealed his move to the Wolves, with Salford using his exit to free up the space needed to name a 17-man squad for their clash with Bradford Bulls in the Challenge Cup last week. Speaking about Sneyd’s exit and the impact of it, Rowley said: “We’ve just lost the runner up to the Man of Steel so it affect the amount of 40/20s, kicking game, tries scored, all that.

“We can’t disguise the fact that it’s a huge miss for us. More importantly, like any player leaving, I think it’s the character and the person they are, we’ll miss him, we’ll miss him in the team room and his influence off the pitch as much as on it.

“He’s been a great pro for us and we wish him nothing but the best. That’s the way it is, that’s rugby, that’s sport but more importantly, that’s life. He’s a good lad, he’s got a great family and we’ll miss him and we’ll miss his little lad rocking up at training as well.”

Of the players mentioned above, Hankinson is the only one that played against the Bulls last weekend. However, the outside back picked up a shoulder injury during the contest and sits out of Thursday’s game because of it. Fortunately, though, the issue isn’t quite as bad as Salford first feared, the head coach has confirmed.

“He’s done a bit of damage to his AC,” Rowley said. “We’re just waiting a little bit longer to see what the outcome is of that that.

“It’s settled quite well as actually so it’s not where the initial fears first were. It looked pretty bad but it’s a lot better than first feared and that might be a quick turnaround with a bit of luck.”