Bradford Bulls centre Matt Calland could be facing another lay-off after a recurrence of a back problem.

The former England three-quarter was troubled for much of the season with the same injury and was unable to train on Monday.

"He was struggling again at St Helens and it badly affected his performance.," said coach Matthew Elliott. "It is a sciatica problem which you think you have got on top of and then it flares up again."

News of the injury is offset by the probable return of recent £140,000 signing Nathan McAvoy who missed Sunday's defeat at Saints with an ankle problem.

And Elliott is hoping that the pack will be given a boost with the return of second-rower Bernard Dwyer.

The tough-tackling Dwyer has missed the last three games after minor knee surgery but is moving well and could come back into contention.

Winger Abi Ekoku is also pushing for inclusion but prop Tahi Reihana is a doubt after missing training with an ankle injury.

Prop Neil Harmon will be available though after precautionary X-rays cleared him of serious wrist damage.

Halifax have received clearance to open their new stand and that will raise capacity above the 10,000 mark. In view of that the match is not all ticket.

Meanwhile assistant coach Brian Noble has spoken in glowing terms of new junior recruit Mark Coates who was snapped up after being released by Wigan.

"Mark will be a big asset to us. He is a big, powerful, well balanced winger who has all the attributes to go a long way in the game."

Great Britain today put their name to a new body governing international rugby league.

And, in a highly significant move on the first day of a two-day summit in Sydney, RFL chairman Sir Rodney Walker defeated his old adversary Maurice Lindsay in a vote for one of the key positions.

Sir Rodney beat the former RFL chief executive in a secret ballot for the position of vice-chairman of the new Rugby League International Federation.

Australian John McDonald was elected as chairman. The new body replaces the Super League International Board, of which Lindsay was chairman.

Sir Rodney, whose strained relationship with Lindsay came to a head in January when he asked for his resignation as RFL chief executive, immediately signalled his intention to stay on as chairman of the RFL.

In other business on the first day of the Sydney summit, the British delegation officially secured agreement with New Zealand for Super League clubs to have first call on their British-based Kiwis for the Grand Final series.

New Zealand were originally insisting on their release for Test matches against Australia on October 9 and 16.

The agreement is good news for the Bulls who will now have Robbie Paul available for their push to make the Grand Final.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.