St Helens make offer to sign hot property Williams

St Helens have been revealed as the British club leading the chase for the Kiwi prodigy Sonny Bill Williams.

St Helens have been revealed as the British club leading the chase for the Kiwi prodigy Sonny Bill Williams.

The player's Australian-based agent has named Saints as the club who have tabled a formal offer for the 19-year-old loose forward, whose contract at the Canterbury Bulldogs runs out at the end of the year. "It's a very good offer and one that Sonny may need to consider," said his agent, Gavin Orr.

Wigan and Leeds had both denied being the club making the offer, although both have admitted an interest in the best young player in the world.

Featherstone are hoping for a full house for the resumption of their local rivalry with Castleford on Sunday. The neighbouring clubs have not met in a competitive match since 1995, after which Cas were included in Super League and Featherstone were left out.

Almost 10 years later and following Castleford's relegation, they are to meet in the Northern Rail Cup, for lower division clubs, with a 7,000 capacity crowd expected at Post Office Road.

Hull's Stephen Kearney and Marcus Bai, of Leeds, have given evidence via video link to a court in Australia, denying being responsible for ending the career of Jarrod McCracken with a spear tackle in 2000. He is suing their former club, Melbourne.

Saints scrum-half Sean Long will wait until the end of the season before deciding whether to retire from international rugby.