Castleford and Sale have agreed a settlement over the dispute surrounding the England international Denny Solomona and his switch to rugby union last year.
The Super League leaders launched legal proceedings against the winger, Sale and his manager, Andy Clarke, last December after Solomona walked away from his contract in rugby league to take up a deal with the union side.
Those proceedings were adjourned in February in a bid to agree a settlement and avoid the case going through the courts. The parties have now reached an agreement. Castleford are understood to have received in the region of £200,000 for Solomona after insisting they had launched proceedings to not only protect themselves but the integrity of sport as a whole. Their chief executive, Steve Gill, said in December: “The proceedings have been issued as a last resort having failed to resolve matters without the formality of court proceedings. We have confidence the legal system will bring out all of the facts and the truth. Our belief is that all contracts are sacrosanct in professional and amateur sports.”
The Tigers were represented by the sports lawyer Richard Cramer, who is also heading the proceedings brought by 47 former employees of Bradford against, among other parties, the Rugby Football League, as revealed exclusively by the Guardian last month. Solomona broke the Super League try record last season with 42 tries. He subsequently failed to return for pre-season training last November. Sale announced his signature in December after weeks of speculation he was set to switch to union, the sport he played as a youngster in New Zealand.
Solomona, despite insisting he would not play league for England during his time at Castleford, earned a call-up to Eddie Jones’s squad for the tour to Argentina and scored the match-winning try on his international debut last weekend.
Leeds thrash Featherstone to reach Challenge Cup semi-finals
Leeds secured their place in the semi-finals of the Ladbrokes Challenge Cup with a 58-0 victory over Featherstone at Headingley Carnegie Stadium.
Stevie Ward, Brett Ferres, Joel Moon and Ash Handley all crossed the whitewash in the first half for the 2015 cup winners as they cruised to 22-0 lead at half-time.
Carl Ablett, Liam Sutcliffe and Handley touched down during James Lockwood’s 10 minutes in the sin-bin at the start of the second half before a brace of tries from Brad Singleton and a further score from Ryan Hall completed the rout, with Sutcliffe kicking nine goals from 10 attempts for a personal tally off 22 points.
Leeds are now just 80 minutes away from extending their incredible record to a sixth final appearance in the last eight seasons, while Rovers will focus their attention on securing a top-four finish in the Championship for a place in next month’s Super Eights Qualifiers.
