Salford furious at MacGillivray snub

Salford have succeeded in re-signing their much sought-after forward, Andy Coley, but are angry that the Australian prop, Duncan MacGillivray has been swayed by family links to join their Super League rivals, Wakefield.

MacGillivray, who has been playing in France for Carcassonne, had agreed to join the Reds for the rest of the season, but is going instead to Trinity, where he will link up with his brother-in-law, Sid Domic.

"It's very disappointing,'' said Salford's director of rugby, Steve Simms. "He'd agreed terms with us and until the end of last week he told us he was still coming.

"But then he said he wanted more money and eventually told us that his wife wanted him to go to Wakefield.'' MacGillivray said that Domic had influenced him to go to the Yorkshire club. "Sid has spoken highly of his time with Wakefield,'' he said.

However, Salford feel that the loss of MacGillivray is balanced by the decision of Coley to ignore the prospects of lucrative offers from elsewhere and stay with them for another three years.

"A lot of big clubs were after him and he's chosen to stay with us, which is testament to the way the club is going,'' Simms said.

Wakefield have failed in their bid to sign the Kangaroo three-quarter, Michael De Vere, who told them last week that he would join them for next season. De Vere might now sign for Hull.

Mark Gasnier fractured his collar-bone in the second half of the State of Origin match on Wednesday, in which he scored two tries for New South Wales. The St George-Illawarra centre will be out for a month and will use that time to decide whether to accept an offer from Wigan, whose chairman, Maurice Lindsay, has just returned to England from his scouting mission in Australia.

Wigan, who would have been one of the clubs bidding for Coley, are now being linked with the Canberra prop, Luke Davico.

Castleford have obtained a work permit for the New Zealand Warriors prop, Mark Tookey, to join them on loan for the rest of this season.