Rea to become coach at Broncos

Tony Rea, the London Broncos chief executive, has resigned in order to switch roles and become the club's coach.

Tony Rea, the London Broncos chief executive, has resigned in order to switch roles and become the club's coach.

Rea took over as caretaker at the end of last season when John Monie was sacked. "I got a really good feeling about the job from that three-week spell and, now that the board have asked me to take over permanently, I'm excited," he said.

Rea, a former player for the Broncos and North Sydney, said: "I'm 100 per cent coach now and the club is looking for a new chief executive," he said. Other applications included a joint bid from two other former London players, Shaun Edwards and Peter Gill.

The new Bradford coach, Brian Noble, has two front-runners for the role as his assistant at Odsal. They are Karl Harrison, the former Great Britain prop now coaching Keighley, and Damien McGrath, who is leaving Leeds after acting as No 2 toGraham Murray and Dean Lance. The Bulls hope to make an appointment next week.

The Leeds utility player, Francis Cummins, has pulled out of England's squad for the Lincoln World Cup because of a sore back and has been replaced by Paul Wellens of St Helens. Wellens will fly out to join England's squad in Florida next Monday, along with Wigan's Grand Final players, who have now been given the same concession as Saints'.

Wigan's Neil Cowie is out of the Welsh squad for the World Cup. The in-form prop needs a groin operation at the end of the season, before he takes up a new contract at the club.

One possibility is bringing in the former Widnes forward, Paul Moriarty, now back in rugby union with Swansea, but that would depend on the Rugby League paying the club for his release.