Wolves snap up centre Burrell on a free
CROSS-CODE signing Luther Burrell will not cost Warrington a penny on their salary cap for the first 18 months of his rugby league career.
The Wolves have taken advantage of one of several dispensations in the Super League salary cap regulations to snap up the 31-year-old former Huddersfield RU and England centre on a two-and-ahalf year contract from July 1.
The league introduced new rules two years ago to allow clubs with sufficient funds to bring in players
“We’ve really struggled to get going a little bit, but other than that we still had a team out there that’s been in positions to potentially win games, that’s probably the frustrating side of it,” he said.
“Against Salford we had a chance to take the lead and keep going at them but we just never did, we never put the foot on the throat.
“It was the same at Catalans – again I don’t know whether it was just tiredness or what it was, maybe inexperience, but again, we just let our foot off.
“So it has been a little bit frustrat- from outside the game without it impacting on the wage cap.
Burrell, who played league as a junior – he is a former team-mate of Huddersfield and England winger Jermaine McGillvary – has spent his entire professional career in union, firstly for Leeds Carnegie and Sale and for the last seven years with Northampton.
Warrington used the exemption to sign winger Taylor Prell from Yorkshire Carnegie in April 2017, although he never made the breakthrough.
“The rule has been in place for a number of years but probably hasn’t been utilised,” said
Wolves chief executive Karl Fitzpatrick.
“It’s called the new talent pool dispensation, so if you were to bring in Usain Bolt or anybody from outside rugby league, it will not impact on your cap for at least the first two years.
“If you’ve never played rugby league at professional level you get 100 per cent dispensation, which means in this case we’ll basically get Luther at zero on the cap for this year and next year.”