Widnes Vikings can confirm that the following players will depart the club at the end of the 2026 season. <\/p>\n
Jack Owens #1030<\/p>\n
After 11 years of impeccable service across two spells, our skipper will depart the club at the conclusion of the 2026 season.<\/p>\n
Making his debut against Siddal in 2011 as a fresh faced 16 year old, Owens has gone on to represent the Vikings 227 times, scoring 97 tries, and a staggering 1069 total points. <\/p>\n
After spells with Whitehaven, St Helens, Sheffield, and Leigh, Jack would return to the Vikings in 2019 and play a fundamental part in one of the most challenging periods in the club\u2019s history. <\/p>\n
In 2020, Owens would be handed the honour of captaining his hometown club, an honour he\u2019s taken with both hands, now serving a seventh season as club captain. <\/p>\n
Jack\u2019s spirit and attitude, both on and off the pitch, embody everything it means to be a Widnes Vikings player. His mentorship, professionalism and leadership qualities have been invaluable to countless Vikings players, coaches and staff members throughout his 11 years with the club.<\/p>\n
Owens leaves the Vikings as a true Widnes legend.<\/p>\n
Everyone at the club would like to thank Jack for more than a decade of outstanding service in black and white and wish him the very best of luck in his next venture.<\/p>\n
Nathan Connell #1207<\/p>\n
Following the conclusion of the 2026 season, Nathan Connell will depart the club to take on a Super League opportunity with Bradford Bulls. <\/p>\n
Connell joined the club at the beginning of this season and has gone on to score 20 tries in 26 appearances for the Vikings.<\/p>\n
Everyone at the club would like to wish Nathan the best of luck in his newest venture. <\/p>\n
Mike Butt #1165 <\/p>\n
Mike Butt will leave the club at the end of the season to take on an opportunity to play for his hometown club, Salford. <\/p>\n
Butt joined the club in 2024 alongside head coach Allan Coleman, and has gone on to score 39 tries in 74 appearances for the Vikings. <\/p>\n
Everyone at the club wishes Mike the best of luck for the future. <\/p>\n
Jack Houghton #1209<\/p>\n
Jack Houghton will depart the club at the end of the season.<\/p>\n
Houghton joined the Vikings at the beginning of 2026, and has featured ten times for the Vikings <\/p>\n
Everyone at the club would like to wish Jack the best of luck for the future. <\/p>\n
Matty Fleming <\/p>\n
Negotiations remain ongoing with Matty Fleming regarding a new contract. <\/p>\n
Head coach Allan Coleman said: \u201cI just want to wish all the players leaving us all the best in the future, I\u2019m so grateful that they played a part in the history of our club, and a part of our season. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019ll always be a Viking in our eyes and we can\u2019t thank them enough, we wish them all the best of luck in the future, and they go with our absolute best wishes.\u201d <\/p>\n
Once a Viking always a Viking <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Widnes Vikings can confirm that the following players will depart the club at the end of the 2026…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":770831,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-770830","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/770830","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=770830"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/770830\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/770831"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=770830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=770830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=770830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}