Last chance of Test series success for O'Connor

Terry O'Connor wants to bow out of international rugby as a winner when he reclaims his place in the Great Britain front row against New Zealand. The Wigan prop, left out of the side beaten at Blackburn last Saturday, is in line for a recall at Huddersfield this weekend and has decided that this series will be his last.

"I've had a good innings, but I'll be 31 by the time of the next series and there are a lot of good young front-rowers coming through," said O'Connor, who struggled through the latter stages of the domestic season with a variety of injuries.

"I've got two years left on my contract at Wigan and I want to have a really big off-season there next year. The other thing is that I have been missing being with my family.

"I didn't want to end my international career on a low note after losing in Sydney in July, but, win or lose, I'm 90 per cent certain I'll finish after this one. What I really want to do is go out with a win, because I have never been in a winning series."

O'Connor could well be recalled to the Great Britain front row at the expense of his best friend in the game, Barrie McDermott, but the national coach, David Waite, has delayed his selection until today because of a virus affecting several members of his squad.

Gary Connolly and Adrian Morley were the worst affected yesterday and Waite is waiting to see how they react to training. Paul Scunthorpe is described as "making progress" with the thigh muscle injury that ruled him out of the first Test.

The England A party touring the South Pacific has called for an inquiry into the refereeing of their 18-12 defeat by Fiji in Suva yesterday. The local referee, Anau Ravai, awarded 30 penalties against the tourists and sent six players to the sin-bin, including the England captain, Sean O'Loughlin, who was later sent off, along with Fiji's Jeuta Seuka.

The England coach, John Kear, refused to comment after the game, but The tour manager, Pat Cluskey, said of the referee: "He was totally out of his depth and didn't understand the rules. With 10 minutes to play, John wanted to bring the players off."

At one stage, the referee stopped the game to show the England players, all full-time professionals with Super League clubs, how to play the ball. "It was like something in an under-eights game," Cluskey said.

O'Loughlin and Paul Sykes scored England's tries as they took a first-half lead in heavy rain, but a hat-trick from the St George-Illawarra centre, Wise Kativerata, proved their undoing after the break.