Hunslet Hawks have today issued a statement over claims from rival clubs that transfer dealings between Leeds Rhinos and the club may have broken RFL rules.
The controversy surrounds Hawks (and fellow Championship side Featherstone Rovers) signing players from the Rhinos on one-year deals, with the understanding the players concerned will return to Leeds at the end of that. The YEP reports that there are fears the transfers could be a way of bypassing rules surrounding dual-registration and loan deals.
Today the club issued a statement confirming that it had been approached by the RFL for permission to speak to James Duckworth and Luke Briscoe. Hawks say they have cooperated with the request and added in a statement:
“We understand that this is part of a review of the contracts of a number of players currently appearing in the Championship competition. James and Luke signed for the Hawks from Leeds Rhinos back in February and contracts were lodged and accepted by the RFL at the time.
“As such we are non-plussed as to why the RFL are carrying out subsequent reviews now as we would have expected any anomalies to have been highlighted then.
“We have specifically requested that these reviews are concluded as swiftly as possible.”
It’s not known how long the RFL investigation will take.
