Luther Burrell will swap codes in July

Cross-code signing Luther Burrell will not cost Warrington a penny on their salary cap for the first 18 months of his rugby league career.

The Wolves have taken advantage of one of several dispensations in the Super League salary cap regulations to snap up the 31-year-old former England centre on a two-and-a-half-year contract from July 1.

The league introduced new rules two years ago to allow clubs with sufficient funds to bring in players from outside the game without it impacting on the wage cap.

Although Burrell played league as a junior - he is a former team-mate of Huddersfield and England winger Jermaine McGillvary - he has spent his entire professional career in union, firstly for Leeds Carnegie and Sale and for the last seven years with Northampton.

Warrington used the exemption to sign winger Taylor Prell from Yorkshire Carnegie in April 2017, although he never made the breakthrough and was released at the end of the 2018 season.

"The rule has been in place for a number of years but probably hasn't been utilised," said Wolves chief executive Karl Fitzpatrick.

"It's called the new talent pool dispensation, so if you were to bring in Usain Bolt or anybody from outside rugby league, it will not impact on your cap for at least the first two years.

The rule has been in place for a number of years but probably hasn't been utilised. Warrington chief executive Karl Price

"If you've never played rugby league at professional level you get 100 per cent dispensation, which means in this case we'll basically get Luther at zero on the cap for the remainder of this year and next year and then in 2021 he's at 50 per cent.

"So it can make a real difference. Clubs are allowed two spots, so if another one did become available which we thought could benefit our squad and could make the transition, we would look at that again."

Like the majority of Super League clubs, Warrington have spent up to the £2m cap but are able to take advantage of exemptions, largely due to the generosity of local businessman and successful music promoter Simon Moran.

"Obviously we've still got to pay his salary and that's where we're fortunate to have Simon Moran and Stuart Middleton, the chairman, who back the club in these instances," Fitzpatrick added.

Warrington will not rush into finding a replacement for Kevin Brown

Had Warrington gone through with the signing of former St Helens utility back Kyle Eastmond from rugby union, they would have received a 50 per cent dispensation for the first year under a separate rule that covers players returning to league.

Warrington are also among the clubs to use the marquee player rule, which enables them to count only the first £150,000 of an overseas player's salary on their cap, and have been granted special dispensation to sign a replacement for Kevin Brown after he was ruled out for the entire 2019 season with an Achilles injury.

Like Castleford, who were given permission to replace Luke Gale, the Wolves will keep that option open.

"We're not going to rush in to spend that," said Fitzpatrick. "We've still got that cap space available but Dec Patton has got a real opportunity to cement his place at half-back."