Super League news: Rangi Chase has quit the sport, Leigh owner Derek Beaumont confirms
Former England stand-off Rangi Chase has quit rugby league, Leigh owner Derek Beaumont has announced.
The 30-year-old former Castleford and Salford player, who was at the height of his game in 2013 when he was crowned Super League's Man of Steel and played for England in the World Cup, has been released by the Centurions just six months into a two-year contract.
Chase, who joined the Centurions following his sacking by Salford at the end of last October, spoke earlier this year of re-discovering his love for the game but he made just five appearances in the Kingstone Press Championship.
Beaumont broke the news of Chase's exit in his weekly column in the Leigh Observer, revealing that the player is set to pursue other interests away from the game.
Leigh, who this week signed former London Broncos stand-off Josh Drinkwater as a replacement, will retain Chase's registration in the event of him returning to the game in the future.
Beaumont said: "Rangi has struggled to settle in the Championship after being plagued by little niggling injuries that have stopped him from getting fully going.
"As he said when he joined us, he wanted to fall back in love with the game and do what he liked doing best which is playing rugby. Unfortunately that hasn't been possible for most of the time.
"Rangi has an opportunity to do something away from the game and, having spoken to him at length, I had to agree it is probably the best thing for him at this stage, although I do hope that at some time in the future he returns to the game.
"He still has much to offer and I think a clean break for a sustained period, enjoying something completely different, will be just the tonic he needs to retrieve that desire, although it may be that he becomes so happy he has played his last game.
"To that end, I have agreed to release him to pursue those options without restraint, although I have obviously protected the club's interests at the same time as doing the right thing by Rangi.
"Whilst he hasn't been able to deliver in full what he wanted, I would hope the fans can be respectful to him and his privacy. I wish him well in his new challenge ahead."
Chase, who began his career under current Salford director of football Tim Sheens at Wests Tigers in 2006, made a big impression at Castleford, where he scored 47 tries in 129 appearances from 2009-13 and caught the eye of ambitious Salford owner Marwan Koukash, who saw the gifted playmaker as the man to build a new team around.
Koukash splashed out a reported £115,000 to buy Chase out of his contract with the Tigers in September 2013 but he was less than halfway through his four-year deal when he parted company.
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