Super League sides ready to loan players to rival clubs

Over the weekend it was confirmed that Sam Hewitt was joining Wakefield Trinity from Huddersfield Giants on a short term loan and today speaking to the press Ian Watson explained the thinking behind this decision.

“He’s too good of a player not to be playing Super League so giving him that opportunity was a key thing,” Watson said.

“We might have sent him to a Championship club as a last resort but ideally this is the level he wants to play at and we want him to play at.

“We want him to be ready when he’s called back to us and so he just slots in nice and easy like he did last year.

“He is behind some real quality players at the moment, he just needs to be ready and I felt the best way to do it was to play Super League so when Wakefield came knocking it was a no brainer.”

Watson has previously spoken about sending players out on loan and this appears to still be the plan though it was been delayed by injuries. Interesting opponents this week Wigan Warriors are also keen on sending players out on loan having sent Joe Shorrocks to Leigh Leopards.

Watson spoke about the current situation with regards to loans: “Not this week, there might be the week after. We need to get through this. What has held this back is probably the injuries. We just need to be certain.

“Matty English isn’t in the squad because he has a knock so we have to be careful with the guys we’ve got that we’re not sending guys out and leaving ourselves short on numbers.”

These injuries include Theo Fages who could face 12 weeks out:

“Theo we’re still waiting on a specialist report, he had a scan yesterday and we’re expecting it to be a high grade calf injury.

“When the specialist comes back to us we will have a full report on that one.

“With Joe Greenwood we’ve been told that it is an MCL which could be four to six weeks but the specialist is going to have a look at that with the way it is presenting.

“Jermaine McGillvary has been to see the specialist too because he had a niggle in his shoulder. He has needed a steroid injection in his shoulder, he’ll be available either next week of the week after.”