THE Roughyeds’ career of long-serving Kenny Hughes, one of our three hookers, has come to an end.
A close friend of his Oldham teammate and one-time fellow St Helens junior Danny Langtree, who is moving on to Super League club Hull FC, Kenny has signed a one-year deal with North Wales Crusaders.
He becomes the Crusaders’ second capture from the Vestacare Stadium, following that of centre Matt Reid. Like ‘Langers’, Hughes has spent eight years at Oldham, the first two of them in the highly-successful Roughyeds reserve team of 2011 and 2012.
He made his senior debut against Rochdale Hornets in March, 2013, shortly after the arrival at the club of Scott Naylor as head coach He went on to become a key member of the Roughyeds’ pack, scoring 29 tries in 138 appearances despite spending most of his time at the club in a triumvirate of dummy-half men, formed initially by Adam Files, Gareth Owen and Hughes and, more recently, by club captain Owen, Hughes and Matty Wilkinson.
Significantly, perhaps, 28-year-old Kenny made only 15 appearances out of a possible 30 last season, compared with Owen’s 24 and 22-year-old Wilkinson’s 25.
Crusaders boss Anthony Murray said:
“Kenny is a quality addition to what is becoming a very solid squad. I have no doubt he will fit in really well with everyone else here.”
Three members of last year’s squad have now moved on (Langtree, Reid, Hughes) and three have signed, namely half-back Dave Hewitt, prop Luke Nelmes, both of whom were here last season, and utility back Danny Grimshaw, who was here in 2016 and 2017 and is coming back after a year at Hunslet.
