Hunslet Hawks can confirm that they will not enter in to a DR agreement with Leeds Rhinos for 2016. Instead, the Hawks will enter into a new DR relationship with Championship side Featherstone Rovers. Chairman Neil Hampshire said “The DR arrangement with Leeds has proved very successful in recent years, not least in helping us secure players such as Liam Hood, Jimmy Watson, Luke Briscoe and James Duckworth on permanent contracts following successful stints on DR. We also managed to get Andy Yates a move back in to Super League and have contributed to the development of Brad Singleton, Jimmy Keinhorst, Rob Mulhern, Robbie Ward, Jordan Lilley and Josh Walters, who of course scored the winning try in last years SL Grand Final so it’s not all been one way traffic. Following our relegation into League 1 we had discussions with Leeds and both Clubs agreed it would be in our mutual interests to end that part of our Partnership operation. Instead, both Clubs will now DR with Featherstone, with Leeds supplying their players on DR to them and Featherstone, in turn, supplying their players on DR to us. There remains the opportunity for us to still take players on loan from Leeds and that is obviously something we will consider further in due course. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank Gary Hetherington and Mark Campbell for their positive approach to the situation.” The Hawks will also play pre season friendlies against both Clubs, at home to Leeds in the Lazenby Cup on Friday 8th Jan and away at Featherstone on Sunday 24th Jan.”