Matt Shaw reporting he’s off to the NRL at the end of the season. Huge blow.

Matt turner saying the same now

Wish him all the best. Gives an opportunity for someone else to take his place.

Can’t hold the kid back.
Let him follow his heart.

Good luck to him if true.

I can see us going for Bateman now.

Maybe that's why we're after Yates???

Allan surely?

Yates is already signed 3 weeks ago.
I assumed him to play prop as relief to the 3 we let go of.

we'll see if adam holroyd starts featuring more the rest of this season

I think Holroyd will be given the chance to take that spot, He's not as good as Nicholson but still plenty of time to develop.
I think we're weaker without Him but Yates coming in does soften that blow.
i hope to god we don't go in for Bateman, he's been off the boil since he came back from Aus then buggered off again.

Good luck to the lad, can you blame him… better lifestyle, probably a few extra quid in his pocket.. playing against quality players week in week out.

Indeed, I wish him all the very best, even though I really don't think he'll get that much 1st team football - the experience will be great for him though.

And Bateman is a NO from me too...

Its a shame as I think we've only seen a glimpse of what he could be, another couple of years at Warrington would be great (for us) but can't knock him for wanting to test himself in the NRL. In the end, while the salary cap over there is almost 3x what we have here, we're going to see more and more of this - especially as the NRL look to add more teams.

Standard of living is twice as high as well, good look to the kid if true, to be the best you can you have to play against the best and that will be week in week out if he gets a shot.

Absolutely this, good luck to the lad as others have said. Also, better this than losing out to the likes of Saints Wigan and Leeds when we really were making up the numbers.

Who agreed to that contract? The lad will become an international.

Gutted! What a player he will turn out to be, cant knock him for going though. Good luck to him and hope he comes back one day!

Yates transfer seems to make sense now!

Yes, I posted recently saying Yates is a 13 and couldn't see how he would displace Currie.

It now looks like Currie will move to 2nd row with Yates at loose forward?

Yeah seems abit of a shift in playing which is abit of a sour one because Currie has been exceptional at 13.

I guess time will tell but ultimately we will be missing a great player who we could build around but when Australia comes knocking…

Well, we have not seen the best of him yet so the loss is not as bad as it could have been. And I assume we have got a decent transfer fee as he is not off contract this year. That's me looking at a glass half full, but yes it is a real shame that we couldn't keep him. I wonder if there is some agreement to take him back if/when he decides to return to the UK ?

I hope we have a "first dibs" clause included

It was inevitable that he would move to the NRL, but not this early.

Wire will be entitled to a transfer fee though, he won't be leaving on a freebie.

Me too, but I'm never really sure how those things work, and how effective they are anyway. Usually, the player goes where the player wants to go, regardless of contracts. Not saying that's fair, but it's just the way it seems to be.

A few on the thread looking at positives and rightly so on balance given the disparity of both caps, not to mention lifestyle and testing yourself against the best, (not you lot Saddened).

Maybe a bit of a stretch, but the fact that we have looked after Nicholson in his short time with us and we appear to be less of a basket case (yes we can always revert to type), could mean some reciprocal benefit with decent Antipodean players and their Clubs choosing to come here as a proving ground rather than a pension jackpot?

might counteract any bad PR that mcguire has been spreading in the last 12 months