McVey and Martyn soothe Saints

Rugby League

DAVE HADFIELD

The Challenge Cup finalists, St Helens, have received a double boost with the completion of a deal with the Australian forward, Derek McVey, and the return from injury of Tommy Martyn.

McVey, from the Sydney Tigers club, has signed for an initial year, with a further two-year option. The 27-year-old prop has been waiting to join the club for several weeks while a work permit was secured.

McVey cannot come into the reckoning for Wembley because he was not registered in time, but Martyn, Saints' first-choice stand-off before badly damaging his knee, could be on the bench. Martyn has now been cleared to play after a six-month absence, although he might more realistically expect to be challenging for his first-team place once more a little deeper into the Super League season.

Mike Gregory, the former Great Britain captain appointed assistant coach at Saints, is to appeal to the League over Salford's refusal to release him from his playing contract.

London Broncos' four new signings - Gavin Allen, Greg Barwick, John Minto and Tulson Tollett - are all lined up to make their debuts in this Sunday's pre-season friendly against Swinton at Wellington College, Crowthorne.

The match, which is part of the Broncos' campaign to take the code to new areas of the south-east, will also help their new coach, Tony Currie, finalise his team for the Super League.

Wigan's board have given full backing to their chairman, Jack Robinson, who has been accused of trying to extract money from a local newspaper through an alleged fraud. "The board are together as one in this situation and have given me their total backing," he said. "I have also had a lot of players coming to see me and their support is very important."

Robinson is under investigation by police following accusations that he attempted to obtain damages from the Wigan Observer by concocting a story that a transfer deal taking international forward Neil Cowie to Leeds had broken down because of an article in the paper.