Relief for Australia as coach overcomes heart scare

Australia will have their coach and their referee for the deciding Test at Wigan on Saturday.

Chris Anderson left hospital in Leeds yesterday afternoon after stopping there overnight for tests following a heart scare whilst working out in the gym.

"All his tests have been good, so he hasn't had a heart attack," said the Australian Rugby League's chief executive, Geoff Carr. "The advice is that he should have a full cardiac assessment when he gets home, just to make sure that he hasn't got any underlying problem."

Training yesterday was supervised by the squad's assistant coach, Greg Pierce, but Anderson is expected to take over – and name his team – today. "It has been pretty much business as usual," said the Australian captain, Brad Fittler, who is preparing for his final Test. "Everyone has been concerned about Chris and hopefully he will get through it and get everything back to normal."

Australia have got the referee they wanted for the third Test, after their fellow-countryman Bill Harrigan's name came out of the hat when the two sides could not reach an agreement. Britain would have settled for any one of their three leading referees – Bob Connolly, who refereed the first Test, Russell Smith or Stuart Cummings.

The chairman of the game's International Federation, John McDonald, drew the lots yesterday, saying that it was "the only fair way" to resolve an embarrassing impasse. "Now that the selection of the referee has been completed, I would urge both nations to concentrate their attention on their performance and put this incident behind them," he said.

The only bonus for Great Britain, who frankly dislike Harrigan's style of officiating, is that they now get their choice of referee for the one-off Test in Australia next July.

Maurice Lindsay, the Wigan chairman whose efforts were largely responsible for getting the Kangaroo tour reinstated after it had been called off because of security fears, has denied that he has any ambitions to return to his old job of chief executive of the Rugby League.

Lindsay is one of a five-man task force who will begin the search for a new, non-affiliated executive chairman and board next week. "But I am definitely not interested in going back to the RFL," he said. "They just need an experienced hand to straighten things out."

Wigan will decide this week whether to make a bid for the Rochdale prop, Danny Sculthorpe, younger brother of Great Britain's Paul and one of the stars of the recent England Under-21 tour of South Africa.

Leigh have talked St Helens' Vila Matautia out of his planned retirement and have signed the 32-year-old Samoa forward on a one-year contract.

The London Broncos are to take their squad to Australia for a month's warm weather training in January, whilst the heat appears to be off Halifax, who have been given extra time to pay a six-figure debt to the Inland Revenue.