Sporting Digest: Rugby League

WIGAN'S board will tonight discuss the future of the club captain, Dean Bell, who has been offered the chance to captain the Auckland Warriors when they enter the Winfield Cup at the same time as the Queensland Crushers and two other new teams. Bell is tempted by the prospect of going back to his home town and rejoining his former Wigan coach, John Monie, for what would be an historic season for rugby league in New Zealand, but the promise of a new contract when his current one expires at the end of this campaign could keep him at Central Park.

PAUL TOPPING, the Leigh utility player who retired after a long dispute with the club, has been persuaded back by Oldham.