{"id":819155,"date":"2026-10-30T23:24:12","date_gmt":"2026-10-30T23:24:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/819155\/"},"modified":"2026-10-30T23:24:12","modified_gmt":"2026-10-30T23:24:12","slug":"released-st-helens-starlet-lands-rfl-championship-move-for-2027","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/819155\/","title":{"rendered":"Released St Helens starlet lands RFL Championship move for 2027"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Young forward Sam Oakes has joined Championship outfit <a href=\"https:\/\/www.loverugbyleague.com\/club\/swinton-lions\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Swinton Lions<\/a> ahead of 2027 following his departure from St Helens.<\/p>\n<p>Oakes is a product of Saints\u2019 youth system and impressed earlier this year as he featured in a pre-season friendly against Swinton.<\/p>\n<p>The front-rower then went on to make his professional debut in the Lions\u2019 colours, coming off the bench as a loanee in their derby win over Salford RLFC in August.<\/p>\n<p>That 20-18 triumph came at The Brick Community Stadium and was played out as the first part of a double-header which concluded with Wigan Warriors\u2019 home win over Toulouse Olympique in Super League.<\/p>\n<p>Now, Oakes has earned a permanent switch to Swinton, arriving at Heywood Road ahead of 2027 to bolster Anthony Murray\u2019s squad.<\/p>\n<p>Released St Helens young gun Sam Oakes lands Championship move to Swinton for 2027<\/p>\n<p>Swinton finished 17th in the Championship last term, with next year set to bring head coach Murray\u2019s first full season at the helm having taken charge early on in the 2026 campaign.<\/p>\n<p>The Lions boss said: \u201cWe\u2019re really pleased to welcome Sam Oakes to Swinton. Sam is a young forward with a bright future, and when the opportunity came up to bring him to the club, it was one we were keen to take.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSam was very impressive in our game against Salford, especially considering it was his debut at open-age level. He showed great composure, worked incredibly hard, and never looked out of place against experienced opposition.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat performance told us a lot about his character and potential.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Oakes\u2019 signing follows those of\u00a0Brad Holroyd, Dan Abram, Danny Lynch, Lloyd Roby, Layton Jupp and Jack Houghton.<\/p>\n<p>Elsewhere, Ben Killan, Jordan Brown, Harry Higham, Tom Ratchford, Trent Kelly-Duffy, Aaron Lynch, Deane Meadows, Dylan Kelly-Duffy and Bobby Shingler have seen their retentions announced, so will all remain at Heywood Road 2027.<\/p>\n<p>Boss Murray continued: \u201cAs soon as I knew Sam was available, I jumped at the chance to sign him. He\u2019s eager to learn, has come through a strong system at St Helens, and I believe this is the perfect environment for him to continue his development.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re excited to work with Sam and help him take the next step in his career, and I\u2019m looking forward to seeing him develop into a really important player for the club.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Young forward Sam Oakes has joined Championship outfit Swinton Lions ahead of 2027 following his departure from St&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":819156,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-819155","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\/819155","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=819155"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/819155\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/819156"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=819155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=819155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=819155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}