Waite can land top League job

The Rugby League are ready to confirm that the Australian coaching guru David Waite is joining them on a three-year contract - thus ending any possibility that he could take over from Matthew Elliott at Bradford.

The Rugby League are ready to confirm that the Australian coaching guru David Waite is joining them on a three-year contract - thus ending any possibility that he could take over from Matthew Elliott at Bradford.

Waite, currently on a three- month deal with the League which takes him through until the end of the Lincoln World Cup, had been linked with the impending vacancy at the Bulls, whose chairman, Chris Caisley, is an admirer and had much to do with bringing him to Britain.

But the League has moved quickly to secure Waite, who also had an offer from New Zealand. "We hope to make an announcement very soon," said the RFL's director of rugby, Greg McCallum. "We had to act fast and Chris, as a member of the RFL's board, knows the situation."

McCallum was unable to say whether Waite's job will include coaching the senior Great Britain side.

Wendell Sailor, one of Australia's leading players for the World Cup, is in trouble after spending the night in the police cells in Townsville after an incident in a nightclub.

Sailor is in Townsville for Australia's first World Cup warm-up match against Papua New Guinea. His off-field record has included a court appearance after an incident in the red-light district of Leeds when he was playing rugby union for the Tykes.