HORRID HENRY INJURY FOR JONES
Saints star excited by his switch to Tigers SIX NATIONS COUNTDOWN
HALF-BACK Danny Richardson cannot wait to run out for new club Castleford on Boxing Day and start putting a “wasted year” behind him.
Richardson was touted as a future England international when he burst on to the scene with St Helens in 2018.
But he was left out in the cold at the champions for much of this year, playing just 12 times and featuring on dual registration at Championship Leigh.
The 23-year-old decided a move was the best way to kick-start his career and is now poised to make his Tigers debut in the pre-season clash with Bradford.
Richardson said: “What happened at Saints was confusing at first.
“I’d gone from playing every single game the year before, to coming back to pre-season with a bit of an injury to find out I wasn’t going to be involved. That was a bit
HENRY SLADE is set to miss the start of the Six Nations after damaging his ankles in Exeter’s win over Leicester on Saturday.
The England centre (right) faces up to six weeks out, which means he is of a shock, because nobody had spoken to me and told me that was the plan.
“I trained as hard as I could, but nothing seemed good enough and the lads went on to win the Grand Final so it proved to be the right decision.
“But from my point of view I saw it as a bit of a wasted year and I fell out of love with the sport – I didn’t enjoy going to training.
“I’m lucky that I’ve got a good set of friends and a great family around me that are real solid, so the minute I left rugby everything else in my life was fine.
“If I was a bit older I might have treated it a bit differently, but although I wasn’t panicking, I was looking at it as being 22, 23, and that I needed to be playing week in, week out.
“I felt like I wasn’t going to progress at the pace I wanted to without playing regularly and I needed a change.”
The chance to work with a trio of former halfbacks in Daryl Powell likely to be sidelined for Eddie Jones’ side’s opener in France on February 2 – and probably the Scotland clash too.
Exeter chief Rob Baxter admitted: “It’s not something he’ll get over
(below), Ryan Sheridan and Danny Orr at Castleford appealed to Richardson’s desire to improve and now he is relishing having his Christmas cut short by the Bulls clash.
He added: “I could have stayed at Saints and seen what went on this year.
“But I want to be the best rugby player I can be and saw an opportunity to work for a head coach and his assistants who are all ex-half-backs.
“They’ve all got their own different specialities and if I’m going to become the player I want to be then this is the best place.
“When Powelly asked who wanted to play on Boxing Day I put my hand straight up because I hadn’t had a game for that long and had that hunger to get back out playing.
“It’s an early kick-off and Christmas will be a bit different this year, but I’m not bothered – I just want to play rugby.” in a week or two.” Sale boss Steve Diamond has been charged with misconduct over postmatch comments he made towards French officials following the Sharks’ European defeat to Exeter.