TOP SWAPS OF THE
WARDLE HEADS TO WARRINGTON AS GIANTS GET KING IN RETURN
HUDDERSFIELD Giants have agreed a deal with Warrington Wolves that will see Toby King and Jake Wardle swap clubs.
The agreement will see both players move for the remainder of the season.
But King may well struggle to force his way into the Giants side as they stretched their winning streak to six games yesterday with an impressive 38-10 win at Hull KR which moved them up to third in the Betfred Super League.
Wardle scored for England in the recent game against the Combined Nations All Stars, but has found himself struggling for regular game time under head coach Ian Watson, with Ricky Leutele and Leroy Cudjoe holding down the centre spots.
Meanwhile King, who was born in Huddersfield, was dropped for Wire’s win over Hull FC on Friday night, with boss Daryl Powell citing poor form as the reason.
The deal is arguably the highest profile of its kind in years. Both have been around the England squad for the past couple of years and key players for their respective teams before this season. King turned down considerable interest from several Super League clubs to stay at Warrington on a long-term deal last year while Wardle signed a multi-year contract with the Giants previously, despite interest from NRL powerhouses Melbourne Storm.
Powell said: “The Toby King and Jake Wardle swap deal was one that came up pretty quickly.
“We are looking to build a really exciting outside back division, with youth and pace as a central point of that. Jake fits that bill perfectly, alongside the quality outside backs coming through at the club already.”
Giants managing director, Richard Thewlis said: “The deal came about very quickly and, upon reflection, is one that suits all parties at this stage of the season and one that both players wanted.
“We have two young men vying to catch the eye of Shaun Wane to play in the World Cup and want to be playing each and every week to give themselves the best opportunity to do so.
“Jake has only made six appearances to date this year for us and his management informed us that a fresh start was of interest to him to ‘reboot’ his season and a similar scenario could be applied to Toby who is keen to take up the challenge here for the remainder of the year.
“Toby, of course, is a Huddersfield lad hailing from Meltham and is well known to many of our squad and will join up with us as soon as practical.
“All parties involved in this arrangement have said we’ll assess the longer term situation after both players have had some time in their new environments as the deal only runs for this year.”