{"id":482689,"date":"2025-10-08T10:21:12","date_gmt":"2025-10-08T10:21:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/482689\/"},"modified":"2025-10-08T10:21:12","modified_gmt":"2025-10-08T10:21:12","slug":"ex-wigan-warriors-hooker-makes-long-awaited-rugby-league-return","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/482689\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-Wigan Warriors hooker makes long-awaited rugby league return"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former Wigan Warriors hooker Luke Waterworth has sealed his return to the game with Rochdale, penning a one-year deal with the Hornets having \u2018found his love for rugby again\u2019.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Waterworth came through the youth ranks of hometown club Wigan<\/a> and played a sole senior game for the Warriors, being handed his debut by current England head coach Shaun Wane.<\/p>\n

Marking the occasion with a try as the Cherry and Whites beat Hull KR 30-16 on home soil back in March 2016 en-route to the Super League title, he was then loaned out to Swinton Lions.<\/p>\n

Eventually joining the Lions permanently ahead of the 2017 campaign, the hooker went on to play over 70 games in their colours in total before departing midway through 2023 \u2013 with that the last time he was involved in the game as a player.<\/p>\n

The ex-Ince Rose Bridge man is now 29, and has agreed a one-year deal with Rochdale<\/a> which will see him make his long-awaited return to the field.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cI couldn\u2019t be more excited to be signing for Rochdale.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter speaking with (chairman) Andy Mazey and (head coach) Gary Thornton, I knew I wanted to be part of the club\u2019s vision and I can\u2019t wait to contribute by working hard.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve had a few years away from the game, but I\u2019ve found my love for rugby again and I\u2019m excited to get started.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018This is an outstanding piece of business, to sign a player of Luke\u2019s experience and proven Championship quality\u2019<\/p>\n

Waterworth<\/a>\u2018s most recent game came for Swinton on March 26, 2023 as he appeared off the bench in the capital against London Broncos.<\/p>\n

Since then, he has been honing his craft in the coaching side of the game, working closely alongside Super League<\/a> outfit Leigh Leopards\u2019 reserves.<\/p>\n

He now joins a Hornets side which finished fifth in League 1<\/a> this term, and all being well, they will form part of a 21-team competition next season.<\/p>\n

The Championship<\/a> and League 1 are set to merge into one division, though full details of that merger \u2013 including the name of the newly-formed competition \u2013 are still to be confirmed by the RFL.<\/p>\n

Hornets chairman Mazey<\/a> added: \u201cThis is an outstanding piece of business, to sign a player of Luke\u2019s experience and proven Championship quality.<\/p>\n

\u201cLuke was an integral part of the successful side we had at Swinton in 2019, but decided to take some time out of the game more recently.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe has remained involved in the sport, working with and assisting his former Swinton coach and a good friend of mine, Stuart Littler, at Leigh.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce we became aware he was putting the boots back on, I moved quickly to tee up a meeting with Gary Thornton.<\/p>\n

\u201cDuring that initial meeting, Gary and Luke got on like a house on fire. It was perfect timing for both parties, and It\u2019s hard to believe Luke is still only 29 years of age.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know first-hand what Luke is all about. He works in education, keeps himself in great shape, and is a clean-living, first-class professional who will add massively to the environment being implemented ahead of 2026.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Wigan Warriors hooker Luke Waterworth has sealed his return to the game with Rochdale, penning a one-year…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":482690,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4102],"tags":[4151,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-482689","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-rugby","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115338051214939209","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482689","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=482689"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482689\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/482690"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=482689"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=482689"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=482689"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}