Cassidy gets one-match ban for tackle off the ball

Wigan will be without Mick Cassidy for their Super League match at Huddersfield on Sunday, but will have him back for their Easter fixtures and their Powergen Challenge Cup semi-final.

Wigan will be without Mick Cassidy for their Super League match at Huddersfield on Sunday, but will have him back for their Easter fixtures and their Powergen Challenge Cup semi-final.

Cassidy was placed on report for an off-the-ball tackle on Wakefield Trinity's Gareth Ellis during Wigan's victory in the fifth round last Friday. The former Great Britain second row was yesterday found guilty of misconduct, banned for one match and fined £300.

St Helens' Samoan forward Maurie Fa'asavalu is to make his first-team debut at Castleford on Friday night.

Fa'asavalu, a star of the rugby union World Cup, follows in the footsteps of his fellow countryman Dom Feaunati, who has already established himself on the wing for Saints.

Gary Connolly is doubtful for Leeds' game at Widnes on Sunday after a training ground accident. The full-back had recovered from the calf injury that kept him out of Leeds' victory over Wigan, but has now damaged an ankle.

David Hinchliffe, the secretary of the Parliamentary rugby league group, is waiting for an answer to his question, tabled in the House of Commons this week, complaining about the game's underrepresentation in the honours list.

The Wakefield MP has written to the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, Tessa Jowell, pointing out that only one former player, Alex Murphy with an OBE in 1999, has been honoured in the last five years. Over the same period, 38 honours have gone to football and 53 to rugby union.

Doncaster's coach, St John Ellis, has reacted to Sunday's defeat by Batley by dropping the wing pairing of PJ Solomon and Marlon Billy for tonight's Arriva Trains Cup game against the London Skolars.

The Australian centre Aaron Wood, who missed York's Challenge Cup quarter-final at Huddersfield because of a one-match suspension, returns for tonight's game against Gateshead. Ryan Benjafield and Tom Andrews, who were both cup-tied, are also back in the line-up.

The Australian club Canterbury have been given a suspended deduction of four points following crowd trouble during their defeat by the Sydney Roosters at the weekend. If there is more crowd disorder involving the Bulldogs, they will lose the points.