Roosters raring to go without warm-up

The Sydney City Roosters arrived in England last night after a 40-hour journey, still critical of the Rugby League's refusal to allow them a warm-up match but promising that there will be no excuses if they fail to beat St Helens in their World Club challenge next Friday.

The Australian champions wanted to play Widnes as part of their build-up before the League blocked the plan. "I still think it's stupid that we don't have a game. But there'll be no excused from us if we lose,'' the Sydney coach, Ricky Stuart, said. "We're here for eight days and that's plenty of time to prepare.''

The Roosters' Great Britain second row, Adrian Morley, said that the squad would be taking the game seriously. "It's something I want to be able to say at the end of my career – that I was a world champion,'' he said.

Anthony Seuseu, Halifax's new prop forward, will step from the plane almost on to the pitch for his club's Powergen Challenge Cup tie at Hull on Sunday.

Seuseu, the younger brother of the Kiwi Test front-rower, Jerry Seuseu, was signed before Christmas, but his arrival has been delayed by work-permit problems. Now that he has landed, however, he goes straight into the squad for the first rugby league match at the Kingston Communications Stadium, after keeping himself in training with his former club, the New Zealand Warriors.

The Halifax coach, Tony Anderson, said: "He's in the 18 for Sunday and he'll play some part, as long as he doesn't pick up a bug or anything." Hull have sold more than 7,000 tickets for the first game at their new home and are intent on topping the 12,000 who saw their final game at The Boulevard, against the New Zealand tourists last October.

London Broncos will have six players – five of them young Britons – making their competitive debuts for the club in their tie against Oldham at Brentford the same day. Their close-season signings from British rivals – Chris Thorman, Mark Cox, Jamie Fielden, Nicky Johnson and Tom Haughey – are all in line to make their first appearances, along with the experienced Australian Bill Peden.

The Broncos coach, Tony Rea, will, however, be without his back row, Mat Toshack, who was concussed during last weekend's friendly at Warrington.