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Nicholas in hunt for red Aussies

Dave Hadfield
Thursday 20 July 2000 00:00 BST
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Wales are to advertise in Australia for players to bolster their squad for the World Cup this autumn. Under tournament rules, overseas players with a Welsh grandparent can represent the Principality, but their team manager, Mike Nicholas, fears that they are in danger of being left behind by the success of teams such as Ireland in finding qualifiedrecruits.

Wales are to advertise in Australia for players to bolster their squad for the World Cup this autumn. Under tournament rules, overseas players with a Welsh grandparent can represent the Principality, but their team manager, Mike Nicholas, fears that they are in danger of being left behind by the success of teams such as Ireland in finding qualifiedrecruits.

"We have found one player in Canberra's Justin Morgan, who will be useful to us in the pack, but we are still looking for a centre, a prop and a second-rower," said Nicholas, who still hopes to persuade Wigan's new recruit, Matthew Johns, to don the red shirt. "We are short of depth and we hope this might bring some more candidates to the fore."

Cameras are to be allowed into the dressing-rooms for this Sunday's Northern Ford Premiership semi-finals, despite the initial objections of the coaches involved. Yorkshire TV is running a series of "warts and all" programmes on the play-offs, the first of which created controversy by featuring an abundance of industrial language from the Widnes coach, David Hulme.

Leigh's Paul Terzis was particularly reluctant to have the cameras in his room before, during and after their match against Oldham, but the Rugby League announced last night that an agreement on access had been reached.

Leigh's back-rower, Simon Baldwin, will miss the match after being suspended for one match for being sent off for use of the forearm during the victory over Dewsbury.

The Wigan hooker, Terry Newton, is likely to miss the match at Hull on Sunday after suffering a foot injury. He will be replaced by Mark Smith, who showed up well as a substitute in the victory over Warrington.

The captain of Wigan and Great Britain, Andy Farrell, has revealed that he wants acareer in coaching after the end of his playing days. Farrell is still only 24, so his attempt to give British coaches a presence at the top level will be delayed for several years.

Huddersfield, the bottom club in Super League last year and still in last place despite merging with Sheffield, lost more than £1m in 1999, bringing their total losses over the past three years to £2.7m.

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