Warrington anger at Guisset's departure

Warrington have lost their French second-rower, Jerome Guisset, who is to return home to play for St Estÿve rather than take up the second year of his contract at Wilderspool.

Warrington have lost their French second-rower, Jerome Guisset, who is to return home to play for St Estÿve rather than take up the second year of his contract at Wilderspool.

"We wanted to keep him," said the Warrington coach, Darryl Van de Velde. "But he had a good offer from France and we couldn't compete at a time when we are trying to trim costs." The Wolves have already released a series of players, including Mark Hilton, Jon Roper and the veteran winger, Mark Forster and, yesterday, the centre David Harris joined Salford.

Warrington will announce the signing tomorrow of Martin Masella, one of the players released by financially troubled Wakefield Trinity, but say they are out of the bidding for Harvey Howard, the Brisbane prop.

The Australia coach, Chris Anderson, has sprung a surprise by naming Brett Kimmorley rather than Andrew Johns at scrum-half for the first of their pre-World Cup warm-up internationals against Papua New Guinea in Townsville on Saturday. Kimmorley has been preferred and Johns included at hooker despite Anderson saying when the squad was named that Johns was his first-choice half-back and would not to be used to fill in at hooker.

Wendell Sailor has been selected despite his misadventures in Townsville, which have seen him charged with drunkenness in a public place after an incident outside a nightclub.

Canberra Raiders have confirmed that Bradford's coach, Matthew Elliott, is to join them next season. The idea is that he should work alongside Mal Meninga, although Meninga himself seemed unsure about the arrangement, fuelling speculation he might leave before next season.