Welsh forward Powell to play rugby league

Wales forward Andy Powell has announced he'll switch codes from rugby union to rugby league with Super League giants Wigan.

Wales forward Andy Powell has signed for rugby league powerhouses Wigan Warriors, the club said on Tuesday.

The Sale Sharks back-rower has penned a two-and-a-half year deal with the Warriors and will join when the English Premiership season finishes in May.

The 31-year-old had previously been courted by the now disbanded Wales-based former Super League outfit Crusaders.

Powell has won 23 caps for Wales and was part of the British and Irish Lions squad that toured South Africa in 2009.

He follows in the footsteps of other Welsh union converts to league Scott Quinell, who moved from Llanelli to Wigan for two seasons before coming back to Richmond, and Gareth Thomas, who ended his career with a stint at the Crusaders.

Powell has played for Leicester, Wasps, Scarlets and Cardiff Blues during a union career which began with Newport.

He has often courted controversy during his career and in 2010 was arrested for driving a golf buggy on the M4 motorway.

In October last year Sale fined him 5,000 pounds ($A7,400) for using abusive language and making offensive hand gestures towards spectators.

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