Rugby League: Broadbent called up by Great Britain

Paul Broadbent and two of his Sheffield Eagles team-mates have been given a consolation prize following their elimination from the Premiership by being added to Great Britain's squad to face Australia in November.

Broadbent played in all five Tests on the South Pacific tour last year and will be favourite for one of the prop positions against the Aussies. He is joined in the squad by the threequarters Keith Senior - who also toured last year - and Nick Pinkney.

The Castleford prop Dean Sampson has also been included despite missing the end of the season because of an ankle injury. Their full-back Jason Flowers has also been called up after an outstanding game in their Premiership semi-final defeat at St Helens.

Huddersfield's former Great Britain captain Garry Schofield is out of the Divisional Premiership final which will open the day's events at Old Trafford this Sunday. Schofield tore a hamstring in the semi-final victory at Keighley.

The First Division's second leading try-scorer, Dean Hanger, suffered a similar injury on Sunday and could also miss the match, while a third Huddersfield player, Nick Fozzard, broke his nose and is also rated a less than 50-50 chance.

The amateur and professional wings of the game are poised to set up a joint policy board - the closest approach yet to a merged governing body - to end years of acrimony. A meeting of the Rugby League and Barla, the amateur authority, has agreed the structure of the joint board and an announcement is planned for next month.

Bob Scott, the general manager of the First and Second Division Clubs' Association, dismissed speculation yesterday that non-Super League clubs had been in discussions with the ARL about the formation of a pounds 35m winter league.

The ARL has invited Australian Super League clubs to join a new company to run the game "down under." The move follows the breakdown in merger talks with News Ltd, backers of Super League in Australia and Europe, and decreases the chances of reverting to one competition next year.