Pryce back to stake claim for Challenge Cup place

Leon Pryce, the outstanding young player in Super League last season, gets his chance on Friday to show that he should be in Bradford's side for the Challenge Cup final after missing the last two matches with a dislocated shoulder.

With the Paul brothers in New Zealand, Pryce will play stand-off against London Broncos, and a good display could help him win back his place against Leeds at Murrayfield eight days later. "The shoulder feels fine," Pryce said. "But this is such a tough team to get into with the competition for places."

Pryce will play alongside another of the Bradford youngsters bidding for a place in the Edinburgh squad, Paul Deacon, with Justin Brooker and Bernard Dwyer, who also missed Sunday's victory at Salford, also getting a chance to stake a claim.

"I had to leave players out of the Grand Final team last season," said Bulls' coach, Matthew Elliott, whose only current fitness worry surrounds Stuart Fielden's shoulder. "I had similar disappointments myself and I don't enjoy disappointing players, but it's something you have to do."

Wakefield Trinity believe they have resolved the cash-flow problem that resulted in their players and staff not being paid last week. Cheques issued by the club were not honoured, but their chief executive, John Pearman, says that the problem has now been resolved.

"We are investing a lot in the ground and that left us temporarily short of funds in our account," he said. "The players have been very understanding and supportive and there is no chance of this happening again."

The former Great Britain coach, Malcolm Reilly, is returning to the game as coach to the country's Under-18 Academy side. Reilly, who was squeezed out of his last club job by the merger of Huddersfield with Sheffield, has also coached Castleford, Leeds, Halifax and, with great success, Australia's Newcastle Knights. He was in charge of the Great Britain Test side for more than seven years until 1994.

He has taken the job on a 14-month, part-time contract, and the Rugby League's director of performance, Joe Lydon, said: "For a coach of his undoubted experience in both northern and southern hemispheres to take this job gives it an extra dimension of credibility. It will be a wonderful experience for the young players and the Academy coaches to be able to work with him."