RL denies funding scheme has failed

The Rugby League has denied that Club Great Britain, the funding operation that kept Keiron Cunningham and Kris Radlinski in the code, has folded.

While the game in Australia has decided against using central funds to retain players targeted by rugby union, the Rugby League in this country says that it still intends to try to generate cash for that purpose.

Suggestions that Club GB was obsolete surfaced when Hull failed in an approach for help to keep Gareth Raynor out of the clutches of Leicester, for whom he eventually signed last week. The uncapped Raynor would not have qualified as an "irreplaceable" part of the national team, said the League's financial director Nigel Wood.

"The litmus test is whether he would get into an Australian squad, as that is the measure of a world-class player," he said. "If a player of that calibre was targeted, Club Great Britain could come into operation again," he added.

Wood also denied that one of the two recipients so far, the Wigan full-back Radlinski, had not received what he had been promised under the scheme.

Australia have lost two wingers, Wendell Sailor and Mat Rogers, to union and fear that they could struggle to retain another, Lote Tuqiri, when his contract runs out at the end of this season. But the ARL believes it would be unfair to bolster the earnings of outside-backs sought by union when forwards of similar status would miss out.

Castleford's full-back, Richard Gay, has been released from hospital after being rushed there last week with a mystery illness – but there remain doubts over his playing future.

Gay suffered three fits in 10 hours, though his condition has improved rapidly.

"It is hard to say what the long-term situation will be," said a spokesman for the club, which had been searching for a new full-back during Gay's previous injury absence.