Britain's perfect Ashes warm-up

No expense is being spared in Great Britain's bid to lift the Ashes for the first time for 31 years. While the cash-strapped Rugby Football League are currently operating on a shoestring and have been forced to cut back on advertising for the Guinness Test Series, the players are living the high life at an exclusive leisure resort in Spain.

The anomaly has arisen because of rugby league's success in securing financial support from Sport England through their world-class plan, a lottery-funded scheme designed to turn the British into world champions. Such backing paid off in the Sydney Olympics for Britain's cyclists and rugby league officials are hoping for similar success against the Kangaroos in the forthcoming Tests.

Hence the five-day trip to La Manga for Britain's 24-man squad, plus eight support staff including new national coach David Waite, as they prepare for the first Guinness Test against Australia at Huddersfield on Sunday week. The RFL performance director Nick Halafihi, who is on the payroll of Sport England, admitted the £1.5m-a-year hand-out had opened new horizons for rugby league's élite players.

"We're readdressing the budget all the time to make sure the players are happy with what we want," he said. "The Sport England funding is designed to fill in the gaps to give the players and coaching staff everything they need."

Halafihi, a former player with Sheffield Eagles, London Broncos, Hull KR and Hunslet who is eight months into his new job, is leaving no stone unturned in an effort to ensure the British players are the best-prepared ever for a Test series. He has enlisted the help of a nutritionist and sports psychologist in addition to a full-time doctor and even chartered a plane to fly the team back from a Test in the south of France last weekend.

"We flew out from Manchester to Paris, where we had a two-hour wait before flying on to Toulouse and then we had a coach trip to Agen so we were travelling all day," he said. "It was not an ideal way for an international team to prepare. So on the way back with injuries etc, we decided to push the boat out a little further and chartered our own personal plane.

"It flew to Agen from where it was based in Ireland and flew us straight into Manchester in an hour and 40 minutes. The boys appreciated that."

Halafihi is also hiring a plane to bring the team back from La Manga, although it could just as easily have been Florida, South Africa or even Australia, thanks to Sport England's generosity.

"The money is available because of the world-class plan," he explained. We could have gone anywhere in the world."