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Reds in tug of war to clinch Aussie

28/11/2002

HALIFAX Blue Sox have launched a bitter war of words with Salford Reds after the Yorkshire club demanded a transfer fee for Aussie star Gavin Clinch.

Clinch was unveiled at the start of the month as the Reds big pre-season signing - but the Blue Sox claim he is still their man and has a clause in his contract to remain with them for another year.

Salford, however, insist they agreed terms with the exciting half-back in good faith and that they will not pay any money to the cash-strapped club.

Clinch is currently away in Australia, but is sure to walk into an angry row when he returns this week.

A spokesman for the Blue Sox told Advertiser Sport: "Quite simply the Rugby League have a contract with us for Gavin where he is registered with us until November 2003. There was always a clause in his contract where we could extend it from two to three years as long as we notified him by November, which we did.

"Gavin shook hands with our coach then went off on holiday effectively as our player. We then got a phone call saying he had signed for Salford. If we make an agreement we have a legally binding contract and now it's up to Salford to tell us what is going on and what they are going to do about it.

"I would expect that we will come to some sort of financial agreement because he was a player we were building a team around. Gavin should be training with us now, but do we want a player back that is obviously not committed to Halifax."

Reds director of football Steve Simms said the club agreed terms with Clinch without any knowledge of a hidden clause, but was confident the deal would still go through.

He told us: "We were under the impression that he was a free agent but it looks as if Halifax were negotiating at the same time as we were. We've just got to wait and see what happens. I think he will come back, look at his contract, then take the disagreement to the Rugby League. Worse case scenario, we are looking for another quality half-back but we are not panicking."