Castleford give captaincy to young Orr

Danny Orr is likely to be the youngest captain in Super League next season after being appointed to the role at Castleford.

Orr, still only 23, has been named as the successor to Adrian Vowles, who has joined Leeds. "I gave the captaincy a lot of thought and had four players in contention, but Danny was the one I felt to be the right choice," said the Castleford coach, Graham Steadman.

"I gave Danny himself the chance to consider the role and he came back to me and said he was very keen. I believe that captaining the side will bring the best out of Danny."

Dale Fritz has becomes vice-captain, with Dean Sampson continuing as club captain.

Hull have also made an appointment – in their case the obvious one – by naming Jason Smith as their new skipper. Smith takes over from fellow Australian, Tony Grimaldi, who has gone home to resume his career at the Canterbury club.

Smith, Hull's outstanding player last year, will captain them for the first time in Sunday's meeting with Wakefield in the memorial game for their late chairman, Roy Waudby. Two new Australians, Craig Greenhill and Sean Ryan, are expected to make their Hull debuts.

Leon Felton will make his first appearance for Warrington against his previous club, St Helens, in their friendly at Wilderspool tonight. Zimbabwe-born Felton back made a handful of appearances for Saints last season but was not retained.

Hull Kingston Rovers have called for an apology from Leigh after claiming that the Leigh coach, Paul Terzis, incited the club's angry fans after their Northern Ford Premiership match on Sunday was abandoned in the second half because of a floodlight failure.

"He was stirring them up and we had to call the police in," said Rovers' chairman, Don Robinson.

The Rugby League and Barla are to meet tonight to try to thrash out a solution to the impasse over youth rugby. Barla, which administers the amateur side of the game, is opposed to a new scheme under which professional clubs will be responsible for running teams at under 17 level.

"The RFL took unilateral action which threatens the partnership we have been working towards," said Barla's chief executive, Ian Cooper. "We fear that there would be too many young players who would subsequently not be offered full contracts and would be lost to the game, but we hope that we can reach an agreement that will safeguard the grassroots."