Orr agrees four-year contract with Wigan
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Your support makes all the difference.Danny Orr has opted to play for Wigan rather than Hull when he leaves Castleford at the end of this season.
The Great Britain stand-off spent the weekend agonising over his destination after telling Cas that he was bringing his nine years with his home-town club to an end.
Orr, who has signed a four-year contract with the Warriors containing a clause that he live in the Wigan area, said: "I want to make a clean break with Castleford and move with my family to the most famous and successful rugby league club in the world." He was jeered by a section of the Castleford crowd during last Friday's defeat to St Helens before winning them over with a man-of-the-match performance that featured his first hat-trick for the club.
Orr is adamant that he will continue in that vein for them for the rest of the season and will always have a soft spot for the Tigers. "Although the time has come for a parting of the ways, I will always look for the Castleford result first," he said.
The 25-year-old had been strongly linked with Wigan since their captain, Andy Farrell, returned from playing alongside him in the World Sevens with glowing reports. They faced competition from Bradford, as well as Castleford and Hull, before Orr opted to fill the stand-off role that has been a headache for the Warriors since the departure of Henry Paul.
"It's been a worrying position for us over the last three years," said the Wigan coach, Stuart Raper, who was previously Orr's coach at Cas. "He's going to bring a lot to this club. He's always been a good player, but he's matured a lot over the last couple of years."
Wigan have also re-signed their promising centre, Martin Aspinwall, on a two-year contract, after he looked set to join Warrington. "He's one I didn't want to lose," said Raper. "He's got some things to learn, but he's the fittest player at the club."
Hull, St Helens and Halifax must wait until tomorrow to learn whether they will have the deduction of two Super League points each rescinded. The three clubs had their appeals against the punishments, for allegedly breaching last season's salary cap, heard by an independent panel at a day-long hearing in Leeds yesterday.
Fresh from losing 46-10 at Widnes on Sunday, Hull's injury jinx has struck again with Shayne McMenemy likely to miss the rest of the season after dislocating his elbow in his first match since arriving from Halifax on a short-term deal.
McMenemy has nevertheless been named in Ireland's squad for the European Nations Cup at the end of the season. He is one of 21 Super League players selected by Daryl Powell, including his Leeds centre, Chris McKenna, who played for Australia only last year.
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