Beaumont unhappy with Smith and Agar
Leigh head of rugby Derek Beaumont has expressed frustation at some of the comments made by Warrington’s coaching team recently, in regard to the transfer of Mickey Higham.
Higham joined Leigh on Wednesday for a £50,000 fee, but there had been a previous bid from the Centurions for the player last week, which failed.
Beaumont is unhappy at the way that Wolves head coach Tony Smith and assistant Richard Agar spoke out about the situation.
“I did a radio show with Tony last night and I thought he made the position really clear,” Agar told the Warrington Guardian last week.
“Usually when clubs want to sign another player they approach through the front door and speak to the club first but it would appear in this situation we were the last people to get to know about this, which created a situation and a difficult week for us this week.”
While Beaumont has thanked Warrington owner Simon Moran for his cooperation, he is clearly not pleased with others at the Halliwell Jones Stadium.
“Whilst I am unhappy with some premature and incorrect comments made by Tony Smith and Richard Agar which I will not go into here, I would like to thank Simon Moran for his professionalism and for allowing the deal to take place,” he said.
“I know it has been a difficult situation for him that he didn’t want to happen but in the end everything happens for a reason and I am sure the nines they were set on for next year will step up and do the job from now.
“I wish Simon and his Warrington team every success in the season except of course when we meet in the Challenge Cup.”
Beaumont was also pleased to have added a player of Higham’s quality to the Centurions’ squad.
“I am absolutely delighted to have Mickey on board. It is no secret I am fully committed to doing what is necessary to build this club into a competitive Super League club,” he added.
“Mickey’s performances this year for Warrington have been solid and he has been their starting nine, playing in every game and keeping current Man of Steel Daryl Clark behind him.
“It was no secret Mickey wanted to finish his career where it all began at his home town club and now the stage to his fairytale ending has been set.
“Having Penk (Sean Penkywicz) out with a serious injury that gets an operation on Tuesday seriously dented our plans. He was absolutely killing it and we had just extended his contract.
“Whilst Bob Beswick has been absolutely outstanding for 80 minutes per game, particularly against Salford and Wakefield it is not only unfair to expect him to continually perform like that but unrealistic when it comes to the middle 8s.”