Josh Charnley has insisted he can leave rugby union with his head held high despite cutting short his time with Sale to return to rugby league with Warrington.
The 26-year-old has signed a deal with the Wolves until the end of the 2020 season, 18 months after crossing codes to join Sale from Wigan. Despite that, Charnley said he had received earlier opportunities to return to league – including an approach from the Wolves late last year.
Wigan were not among those who approached him over a return but he rejected numerous approaches, preferring to remain with Sale until he felt he had fully adjusted to the rigours of rugby union: something he believes he ultimately achieved in the subsequent months.
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“In November, my agent rung me and told me Warrington were interested in me, but I turned it down because I’d not proved myself yet in rugby union,” Charnley said. “I still had another year on my contract and wasn’t interested in coming back so soon and being one of those guys who’d simply failed and come back.
“I had a few other clubs knocking at the door too but it came too early in my union career, so I turned them down as well. Then, five or six weeks ago, we played against London Irish and it was my best game, I won the man of the match and I genuinely thought I’d cracked it.
“It was tough, I’ve got to admit that. The first six months in particular were really hard. I was doing loads of homework and studying what we were doing just to learn the game and it was difficult. But I think I cracked it by the end, and I’ve genuinely no regrets at all.”
Charnley acknowledged that with three internationals in Denny Solomona, Marland Yarde and Byron McGuigan as his direct competition at Sale, he was fearful that the longer he spent on the sidelines, the more his value for any prospective employer would suffer.
“I’d not played since that Irish game [in February]. It’s tough to play every week and I didn’t want to sit around, wait and devalue as a player. The opportunity came up again to come here last week, we agreed terms and it’s happened very quickly.”
Charnley is unlikely to feature for Warrington in their Super League fixture against Wakefield on Friday, but when he does make his debut for the Wolves he believes he can buck the trend and return to league a better player than the one who left.
“I’ve been scrolling through Twitter and there’s been a lot of criticism from people saying you’re never the same player when you come back to league having played union,” he said. “But I’ve worked on things I wasn’t confident with before while I’ve been in union. I’m a lot more confident in certain aspects of my game now and I come back better to deal with that kind of pressure.”
The winger also believes he rejoins rugby league at an exciting time for the sport but said he was surprised to notice the lack of profile it has in some quarters during his time in union.
“Being in union during the [Rugby League] World Cup, none of the lads knew it was happening,” he said. “The advertising for the sport just isn’t there, but at least it’s growing.
“With places like Toronto and New York wanting to take the game on, hopefully we can give it a bit of a push. A lot of the union lads do like league so if we can get out there and spread the message, hopefully it’ll grow.”