Widnes drop interest in Paul

Widnes have pulled out of their attempt to bring the former Wigan and Bradford stand-off, Henry Paul, back to rugby league.

The Vikings tabled a bid for the New Zealander to his club Gloucester last week and believed they had the finance in place to meet his expectations. "But now it seems he has decided to stay in rugby union," a Widnes spokesman said. "We made a genuine effort to sign him, but now we will turn our attentions elsewhere." Widnes's new target is an international stand-off, but they prefer not to name him in case this bid falls through as well.

In the meantime, the club is trying to negotiate a severance deal with last season's first-choice stand-off, Steve Carter, who has broken his ankle and will not be able to play for several months.

The Wakefield player-coach, Adrian Vowles, has announced he will retire after this season. The Australian has played in Britain for the last seven years and said: "I want to finish with a really good season."

The London Broncos' Australian international hooker, Jason Hetherington, could miss most of the season with a shoulder injury. "He played with the injury at the end of last season when he hadn't even told us about it and obviously made it worse," said the Broncos' coach, Tony Rea, who has replaced him as captain with his fellow Australian, Jim Dymock.

For the first time since the introduction of the play-offs and Grand Final in 1998, the side that finishes top of the Super League table will get some recognition this year. The leading team after the regular competition will receive a new League Leaders Shield, but no prize-money. The £1.1m prize fund will continue to be paid out on the basis of success in the play-offs, but the Shield should satisfy complaints that the season's most consistent club deserves to have its achievement marked.

The League's technical executive, Stuart Cummings, has defended the decision to allow one of the Sydney Roosters' tries against St Helens in the World Club Challenge last Friday despite an apparent knock on. Cummings said that the video referee's decision was "absolutely correct" under the new interpretation, that allows play to continue if the ball comes off a player making a tackle.