WARRINGTON Wolves' move for former England scrum-half Matty Smith first became mooted earlier today.

Media in France were saying around lunch-time that the deal had gone through.

Pictures of Smith training with the team also surfaced on social media.

The Wire were able to confirm a loan deal around 5.30pm.

Blake Austin injured his ankle against Catalans Dragons at the weekend and The Wire were known to have been in the market for a half back.

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The 32-year-old Smith, who has also spent time with St Helens, Wigan and Salford, seems to have been out of favour at his current club Catalans Dragons.

He did not play in either of Catalans Dragons' Challenge Cup fixtures this year but the registration deadline has passed and so he will not be available to Steve Price for the cup final.

UPDATE REGARDING TRANSFER DEADLINES:

The changes to the competition structure for 2019 allowed a number of changes to signings and registration deadlines, which were agreed between the Rugby Football League and the member clubs.

The deadline for signing players for the season, which had been brought forward to July in recent years to coincide with the end of the regular season, and the start of the Super Eights and the Qualifiers, will now revert to Friday August 9, across Betfred Super League, Championship and League One.

At that stage there will be only four rounds of the regular season remaining in Betfred Championship and League One, and five in the Betfred Super League (whereas last season, when the deadline was July 27, there were still seven rounds remaining in all three competitions).

The cut-off for dual registration will follow on Monday, August 12. After that point, players will only be eligible to move between two clubs if they have already made four appearances on dual registration. If not, they would be able to play either for their parent club, or to move on loan for the rest of the season to their dual-registration club – but not both.

The third change is the signing deadline for the Coral Challenge Cup and the AB Sundecks 1895 Cup.

For both competitions, that deadline was Friday July 19 – eight days before the Coral Challenge Cup semi finals, and nine before the AB Sundecks 1895 Cup semi finals.

(The regulations surrounding players being “Cup-Tied” remain the same – a player can only play for one club in each Cup competition).