Wigan for Wales

RUGBY LEAGUE Wales' team to play England in Cardiff on 1 February will be angled towards the Anglos, but not as sharply as it might have been.

The Welsh coach, Clive Griffiths, has taken advantage of the new grandparental qualification rule to select the entire Wigan front row of Skerrett the prop, Hall the hooker and Cowie the other prop in a 25-man squad. Also brought in under the same rulingare their team-mate, Paul Atcheson, and the St Helens hooker, Keiron Cunningham.

Richie Eyres -who had previously expressed an interest in playing for Wales - is clearly in the frame for the England squad which Ellery Hanley will name today.

Griffiths has had to leave out Scott Gibbs and John Devereux, both of whom are recovering from injury, and there are also doubts about Allan Bateman and Anthony Sullivan.

However, the addition of the English-born contingent helps enormously, solving the perennial problem at hooker twice over, and giving him greater depth in other positions.

WALES SQUAD for (John Smith's European Championship match v England, Ninian Park, Cardiff, 1 February): P Atcheson (Wigan), A Bateman (Warrington), G Cordle (Bradford), N Cowie (Wigan), K Cunningham (St Helens), J Davies (Warrington), K Ellis (Workington), P Ford (Salford), J Griffiths (St Helens), A Hadley (Widnes), M Hall (Wigan), I Harris (Warrington), M Jones (Hull), J Lee (Warrington), I Marlow (Wakefield), P Moriarty (Halifax), M Perrett (Halifax), R Phillips (Workington), D Powell (Wakefield), S Quinnell (Wigan), K Skerrett (Wigan), I Stevens (Hull), A Sullivan (St Helens), R Webster (Salford), D Young (Salford).