Wigan Warriors quartet on way out but club quiet on Stuart Fielden

Wigan have confirmed that four of the squad who have taken them to the top of the Super League for the first time in a decade are to leave at the end of the season. However, the club have remained quiet on the future of Stuart Fielden, the former Great Britain prop who is also out of contract at the end of the year. Fielden, who turns 31 in a fortnight, is wanted by a number of other Super League clubs including Hull. But Wigan would still like to keep him, even though they have only offered him a one-year contract on much lower terms than the four-year deal on which he joined them from Bradford in 2006. Phil Bailey and Iafeta Paleaaesina, the overseas forwards who were not offered new deals by Wigan, have both joined Salford on two-year contracts. Mark Riddell had already announced that he will be returning to Australia, and the young wing Shaun Ainscough is to join Bradford, who have signed the New Zealand Warriors full-back or centre Patrick Ah Van on a one-year deal. Other deals to go through on a busy day before the open market officially begins today included Danny Kirmond's return from Wakefield to Huddersfield with immediate effect, meaning the second-row will travel with the Giants to Perpignan for their game against the Catalans Dragons next Saturday. Trent Robinson, who will succeed Kevin Walters as the Dragons' coach next season, has continued to remodel his squad by signing Jason Baitieri, a Sydney Roosters forward who was born in France – and whose father, Tas, has been the driving force of most of the positive developments in European rugby league for a decade or more – and releasing the former Melbourne loose forward Dallas Johnson to join the North Queensland Cowboys. St Helens have ended speculation that their assistant coach Kieron Purtill may succeed Brian McDermott at Harlequins by announcing that he has signed a new two-year contract to work under Royce Simmons. But the London club will finally be able to make a positive announcement about their future before their last game of the season against the Challenge Cup winners Warrington at the Stoop on Friday, as the Rugby Football League is thought to have helped them secure new investment to ease the burden on their long-term backer David Hughes.