Steve Hanley, the former England rugby union wing, is hoping to play for the Super League champions St Helens. The 22-year-old Sale player, who has been tracked by rugby league clubs since playing as a teenager for Whitehaven’s Academy team, will next week take up an offer to train with Ian Millward’s side and says he is ready to play a competitive game.
He said: “I don’t know if I will get to play in any games ­ that will be up to Ian Millward ­ but I have played for Whitehaven Academy so the game would not be strange to me.”Hanley, whose only England appearance came against Wales in 1999, is hoping a spell with the champions will get his union career back on track after a season disrupted by injury and loss of form.Neil Harmon, the former Bradford Bulls prop, has been called into the Ireland squad for next Tuesday’s international against France in Albi. The 32-year-old Harmon, who made his Ireland debut in a 30-30 draw with the French in Paris four years ago, was not named in the original 17-strong squad because he was finalising a move to Salford.Scotland have named 13 survivors from their 2000 World Cup squad for the international against France in L?gnan on 3 July. The new coach, Billy McGinty, has included three new caps in a 26-strong squad.The newcomers are the Hull forward Richard Fletcher, the Dewsbury prop Ryan McDonald and the Castleford utility forward Ian Tonks..

Mike Catt did not look the picture of health as he retreated from the Lions’ training ground in Manly with a small iceberg strapped to his dodgy right calf muscle. Nevertheless, the Bath midfielder will make his first tour appearance at inside centre against Australia A in Gosford today, and if he emerges unscathed, all well and good. The Test No 12 shirt is still a point of issue, and Catt’s kicking game ­ not to mention his long passing and his pace off the mark ­ would be a handy option against the Wallabies. Mike Catt did not look the picture of health as he retreated from the Lions’ training ground in Manly with a small iceberg strapped to his dodgy right calf muscle. Nevertheless, the Bath midfielder will make his first tour appearance at inside centre against Australia A in Gosford today, and if he emerges unscathed, all well and good.

The Test No 12 shirt is still a point of issue, and Catt’s kicking game ­ not to mention his long passing and his pace off the mark ­ would be a handy option against the Wallabies.
The news that Catt had been spared the disappointment of catching the first flight home came as a mild surprise, given his reticence in yesterday’s full “beasting” session. Catt took no part in kicking practice; indeed, he retired early to the sideline, swapped his boots for a pair of trainers and spent 30 minutes or so rehearsing his boomerang technique. However, he was in high good humour during the evening.”I feel comfortable enough,” he said. “When you cannot take an active part on a tour like this, all sorts of negative thoughts go through your head. There is nothing to occupy your mind; you don’t even get tired, because you’re not involved in anything physical. But I’ve come through some contact work with no ill effects, and my absence from the kicking session was purely precautionary.

I set my sights on being a 2001 Lion and I can’t tell you how relieved I am to be pulling on the shirt at last.”Given the condensed nature of the tour, Catt needs to make immediate ground on his midfield rivals to stand a chance of claiming a Test place in Brisbane on Saturday week. Fortunately for him, Phil Waugh’s Australia A side will provide precisely the kind of quality work-out he requires. With Nathan Grey, a live Wallaby contender, partnering the versatile Graeme Bond at centre, Catt has landed smack bang in the middle of Serious Street. As Donal Lenihan, the Lions manager, said yesterday: “People always talk in terms of a ‘fourth Test’ on Lions tours. In my view, this is our fourth Test.”Lenihan was clearly disappointed by the absurd anti-Lions propaganda emanating from the Australian Rugby Union in the wake of the weekend victory over Queensland. Eddie Jones, the next Wallaby coach and the strategist behind the Australia A team, effectively accused the tourists of adopting a fists-and-all approach as a matter of policy ­ and did it on headed ARU notepaper, too It is an old ploy in these parts.