Nutley and Manu to Castleford

Castleford Tigers have acquired two top class forwards from the NRL in former Warrington star Danny Nutley, from the Cronulla Sharks, and the St George-Illawarra Dragons Tongan international back rower Willie Manu.

31-year-old prop forward Nutley - who is a quota player - started his senior career with South Queensland before joining Warrington Wolves in 1998.

The prop made 99 appearances for the Wolves, who were very keen to retain him but he opted to return ?home? and join the Sharks where he has spent the past three seasons.

At the Sharks Nutley took the Player of the Year award in 2003 and represented Queensland in the State of Origin.

25 year-old Manu is a 16 stone six foot second row forward who has made 14 appearances for the St George-Illawarra Dragons this year taking his NRL first grade appearances to 83 since making his debut for the Wests Tigers in 2002.

Manu - who is a non-quota player - had two years with Wests and then a season at Souths before his switch to St George for the 2005 season.

Although born in Sydney, Manu is qualified to play for Tonga and represented the country firstly in the 2000 World Cup competition. Most recently he played against Samoa last month in the build up to the 2008 World Cup.

Castleford CEO Richard Wright said: ?We believe that these are two excellent acquisitions for the Tigers who will add strength and toughness to our pack.

?We have had to work very hard to bring the duo to the club, with Terry Matterson playing a big part, as both were first team regulars and under contract.

?Danny capped a tremendous season this year with State of Origin selection and Willie is a regular in the Tongan set up, and both just the type of quality players that we have been looking to bring to the club to augment the talent who took us back into Super League.

?We always felt that with patience we could land the right players and now we feel that we are reaping the benefits and building a group of players who will give us a very competitive side in 2006.?

On Wednesday Castleford completed the signing of St Helens? Welsh international prop forward Keith Mason.

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Thanks to www.superleague.co.uk for this news.