Halifax plead for ground funds to stay in business

Halifax must wait to hear whether they will have the money to pay a tax bill that could put them out of business. The trustees of the club's old ground, Thrum Hall, listened to a request last night to allow funds from the sale of the site to be used to pay debts rather than channelled into redeveloping The Shay.

"There are a lot of issues to be resolved and further discussions are planned," said a spokesman for the Blue Sox, who fear they could face a winding-up order if they cannot pay £200,000 to the Inland Revenue.

Bradford Bulls have reacted to the broken arm suffered by prop Paul Anderson by recalling the young forward Richard Moore from his loan with the London Broncos.

Moore played seven times for London, whose coach Tony Rea described him as "a tower of strength" during his time at the club. He could go straight into the Bulls' squad for their home match against Wigan on Friday.

Rea has moved quickly to bring another young player to Griffin Park, signing Leeds' Academy hooker Jonny Hepworth on loan.

The Wigan coach, Stuart Raper, has dampened speculation that he is set to drop players for their first meeting with Bradford since last October's 37-6 thrashing in the Super League Grand Final, despite being critical of some of them in the aftermath of Saturday's defeat to Leeds.

"Changing the personnel isn't always the answer," said Raper, who admitted to talking individually to several members of that team. "Those players have got us through a lot recently and they haven't become bad players overnight."