If the senior half-back Fabien Galthi?finds himself on the painful end of

If the senior half-back, Fabien Galthi?finds himself on the painful end of some Pacific island tackling, Fr?ric Michalak will move from outside-half to cover for him.The Celts reported mixed fortunes yesterday. He will operate alongside two New Zealand ex-pats, Scott Palmer and Matt Phillips, who can expect little mercy from their countrymen.If the Italians, coached by another New Zealander in John Kirwan, have voluntarily fielded an under-strength side, France may have no choice in the matter when they take on the dangerous Fijians in the heat and humidity of Brisbane this weekend.Dimitri Yachvili, the second-string scrum-half, will be absent from the replacements’ bench after joining Sylvain Marconnet, Olivier Brouzet, Yannick Jauzion and Nicolas Brusque on a growing casualty list. Matteo Mazzantini of Rovigo will play at scrum-half against the New Zealanders in Melbourne on Saturday, with the hugely influential Troncon on the bench.Mauro Bergamasco, the most exciting open-side flanker in Europe until the Italian coaching staff asked him to perform a Jonah Lomu imperson-ation on the wing, has been restored to the back row. He has a Greek passport and will not count on their overseas quota..

How do you beat the All Blacks? Not by leaving your best players on the bench, that’s for sure. “I hope I’ll be able to get back to my best as soon as possible.”The Wigan coach, Mike Gregory, is prepared for the possibility of the 19-year-old forward revitalising the Leeds pack. “He would bring some aggression, but you have to be realistic, because he hasn’t trained with the team for two and a half months,” Gregory said. “Daryl Powell has a big decision to make.”Gregory expects to have a full-strength team for Headingley, with both Andy Farrell and Adrian Lam likely to be fit.New Zealand have revealed that they approached Henry Paul about making a one-off return to rugby league for their game against Australia on 18 October.They asked the former Wigan and Bradford player to help them through their half-back crisis, but Paul – who missed the English World Cup squad – has told them he had commitments with Gloucester.Salford have lined up Sean Rutgerson of Canberra, Manly’s Mark Shipway and Dennis Scott from Canterbury to ease the transition to Super League next season. They will also sign Andy Johnson from Castleford and Joel Caine, who played for London this year.Huddersfield have signed the centre Chris Nero from St George-Illawarra.

The Leeds prop Ryan Bailey has vowed on his release from a young offenders’ institution to repay the club for their loyalty to him.
Bailey has been released on licence after serving two-thirds of a three-month sentence for his part in a city centre brawl and could be in the Rhinos’ squad for Friday’s sudden-death play-off against Wigan.”I realise my actions put the good name of both Leeds and rugby league in jeopardy,” Bailey said. Hodgson may not know his fate until the MotoGP champion, Valentino Rossi, decides whether to leave Honda and join either Yamaha or Ducati.. The switch would see British riders competing for podium positions in motorcycle racing’s two main championships. But a Ducati spokesman said: “The chances of James Toseland riding for us in World Superbikes are highly likely.”Ducati are expected to announce the move at the final round of the championship in France on 19 October. It would give the 22-year-old the chance to become Britain’s third world superbike champion in the history of the competition after the four-times champion Carl Fogarty and the current No 1, Neil Hodgson.Ducati want to promote Hodgson, 29, to the MotoGP series. “The build-up to this game,” he admitted, “could hardly have been worse.”. James Toseland is said to have signed a secret deal with Ducati that will make him a favourite to win the World Superbike championship in 2004.