I’ve a lot of time for him and he’s really put the hard work in

“I’ve a lot of time for him and he’s really put the hard work in.” The line-up for Saturday is otherwise as expected, with Terry O’Connor and Neil Cowie keeping their places as the starting props and new signing Harvey Howard on the bench.”I was really impressed with the way Harvey played at Chorley,” Endacott said. “I don’t like the term impact player, but he changed the game when he was on.”Endacott has made light of both the appointment of Wigan’s least favourite referee, Stuart Cummings, and the claim of the St Helens coach, Ian Millward, that the club is under pressure after promising some silverwear this season “No one can give guarantees. All we’ve promised is that we’ll do everything we can,” said Endacott. “It’s true we haven’t got a very good record under Stuart Cummings, but if you’re good enough you don’t worry about the referee.”One of Wigan’s senior players, Denis Betts, claimed that Sunday’s 82-4 win at Chorley was far from being ideal preparation “It just wasn’t realistic,” he said on his website. “We would have got more out of playing our A team or Academy team in a game of grab rugby.”Hull’s Paul Cooke misses the tie at Keighley after injuring his knee in the 26-0 win over Bradford in Sunday’s friendly. Adam Maher and Tony Grimaldi, however, will be back.Halifax’s coach, Gary Mercer, is back with his team after being delayed by 24 hours in flying back from the Sunshine State Challenge in Florida by the loss of his passport.York’s Alan Pallister is to appear before a disciplinary hearing next Tuesday charged with a late, high tackle that left Featherstone’s Jamie Rooney with a broken jaw.. The Crater-strewn battlefield known as English domestic rugby was teetering on the edge of political conflict once again yesterday as the RFU Reform Group, implacable opponents of the élite Zurich Premiership clubs and their attempts to secure what they consider to be a viable future for the professional game, confirmed they had attracted sufficient support to demand a Special General Meeting of the union.

The Reform Group’s stand, dismissed as “a complete nonsense” by the Newcastle director of rugby, Rob Andrew, has the support of 150 non-Premiership sides. The Crater-strewn battlefield known as English domestic rugby was teetering on the edge of political conflict once again yesterday as the RFU Reform Group, implacable opponents of the élite Zurich Premiership clubs and their attempts to secure what they consider to be a viable future for the professional game, confirmed they had attracted sufficient support to demand a Special General Meeting of the union. The Reform Group’s stand, dismissed as “a complete nonsense” by the Newcastle director of rugby, Rob Andrew, has the support of 150 non-Premiership sides.
However, it does not have the support of one hugely influential figure: Fran Cotton, chairman of the Club England committee and a one-time supporter of the Reform Group. “I dissociate myself from this move for an SGM; I have not attended a Reform Group meeting for 18 months and there will be no personal endorsement from me,” said the celebrated England and Lions prop.Significantly, Cotton will attempt to sell a Heads of Agreement document, based on the ill-fated Andrew Plan for the restructuring of English rugby, to the RFU council at Twickenham tomorrow.”I would add this,” Cotton continued.

“The fact that the Reform Group have attracted this sort of mandate suggests that there are real issues of concern out there, issues that need to be addressed by the union. But my motivation is to achieve the best structure for the England national team, and I am fully supportive of the Andrew Plan. I worked long hours with Rob putting that proposal together and I would reject out of hand any suggestion that I have done anything to interfere with the progress of the game in this country. We’re talking Mission Impossible here; no individual, myself included, can deliver an agreement that satisfies everyone.

But I’ll keep trying.”This much is clear: the detail contained in the Heads of Agreement does not satisfy the Reform Group. “Clubs are incensed,” said Malcolm Ross, who chairs the pressure group. “The RFU are proposing to give away control and vast sums of money to the corporate coffers of the Premiership clubs. If signed, the agreement will sound the death knell for rugby in England.”Thomas claimed that 35 per cent of clubs contacted by his organisation had supported the drive towards an SGM, and while he made no mention of the remaining 65 per cent, there is little doubt that the Reform Group’s initiative poses a serious threat to the Premiership clubs. Thomas and his colleagues are proposing a broad sweep of measures designed to curb the power of the professional clubs: a drastic cut in delegated administrative powers, the outlawing of agreements between the Premiership sides and the RFU management board, expulsion for any club failing to accept exclusive RFU control of competitions, broadcasting revenue and sponsorship arrangements.Yesterday’s developments were greeted with derision by Howard Thomas, chief executive of English First Division Rugby and a senior mover and shaker in the newly-constituted European Professional Club Rugby Association, which held its inaugural meeting at Heathrow yesterday with delegates from England, Wales, France, Scotland, Italy and Spain.