World Cup heads for Britain in 2005

The International Federation has given the go-ahead for a World Cup in Britain and France in 2005, a Kangaroo tour here next year and an eight-team World Club Championship.

The meeting in Sydney has drawn up a blueprint for international competition over the next five years, which also includes a revival of the World Sevens and the strong possibility of a Great Britain tour Down Under in 2006.

The best news for those concerned about the game's international dimension is that there will be another World Cup, despite the heavy losses made by the ambitious 2000 tournament, held at venues throughout Britain and France.

The shape the tournament will take has yet to be resolved, as has the format for the International Club Championship, which is due to be played at the end of the 2004 season. The plan is for it to include the top four British clubs, three from Australia and the New Zealand Warriors.

The World Sevens will be played as a pre-season event, in Australia, starting in 2003.

If the Sevens is the revival of a relatively recent tradition, then a proper calendar for international tours is much more significant. New Zealand are already scheduled to come here on a full-scale tour this autumn, followed by Australia a year later.

Pencilled in is a British tour to Australasia in 2006. It will be the first visit of any length since 1992, such has been the disruption to the game's traditional rivalries since the Super League upheavals of the mid-90s.

The Federation has also committed itself to putting a programme in place for the smaller league-playing nations, including Russia. "The international side of the game will grow once more," said the RLIF's chairman, Colin Love. "The commitment from the delegates here over the last few days suggests a very bright future."

A 30,000 signature petition deploring the media treatment of rugby league is to be presented to Parliament today. "Rugby league fans have had enough of the sneering and the patronising of our great game and 30,000 fans will be at Westminster in spirit to make that point," said the petition's organiser, Ray Gent. The Wakefield MP, David Hinchliffe, has tabled a motion welcoming the petition.

Wigan hope to have Gary Connolly fit again for their match at Halifax on Sunday, after missing the Challenge Cup tie at Leigh with a broken finger.

Oldham have signed the former Great Britain prop, Steve Molloy, from Batley. Molloy spent a spell on loan to Oldham, his home-town club, last season.