Rea Favourite to Take Over Dragons

Tony Rea is the favorite to take over as the coach of the Catalans Dragons when Mick Potter joins St Helens at the end of the season, despite the surprising revelation that the Wigan and former Great Britain coach Brian Noble has expressed an interest in the position.

Noble is in the last year of his contract at Wigan and although he recently opened negotiations with the club's chairman Ian Lenagan about a new deal, the Catalans chairman Bernard Guasch claimed at the weekend that "Brian has put his name forward" for the forthcoming vacancy in Perpignan.

Guasch said that the Dragons, who are currently second in the Super League table, have already received up to 20 applications with other eyecatching names on the long-list thought to include Huddersfield's Jon Sharp, who recently signed a one-year contract extension with the Giants, and Steve Folkes and Kevin Walters from Australia.

However Rea, who is currently working as an analyst for Sky Sports after stepping down as the coach of Harlequins midway through last season, has the advantage of more than a decade's experience of working for an outpost club, having served the London Broncos as captain, director and chief executive in addition to two spells as coach.

Folkes, who announced earlier this month that he is to leave the Canterbury Bulldogs at the end of this season, would also be interested in succeeding Noble at Wigan or Paul Cullen at Warrington, according to comments from his agent John Fordham in yesterday's Sydney press. "There are question marks over some English clubs, one being Wigan, the other being Warrington," said Fordham – which may have come as quite a shock to Cullen, who is less than halfway through the new two-year contract he signed last summer.

Castleford are unlikely to make any decision until tomorrow at least on whether to offer Dwain Chambers a contract following the expiry of his initial four-week trial, but made an announcement with much more significance for the club's long-term future yesterday. Joe Westerman, an 18-year-old loose forward who has been outstanding in a struggling side this season leading to strong links with Leeds, has signed a three-year extension to his contract, which now runs until the end of 2012. "We have made some headlines this season, but I am sure this is the news our fans wanted to hear," said the Tigers' chief executive Richard Wright.

Leeds have signed Eric Anselme, a 29-year-old second-row who scored a try for France against Great Britain at Headingley last summer, on loan from Albi to help plug the gaps left by injuries to Gareth Ellis, Ian Kirke and Ali Lauitiiti. Anselme may make his debut against Bradford in Cardiff next Sunday in the last game of Super League's Millennium Magic weekend.

However Wigan's Gareth Hock, Warrington's Jon Clarke and Wakefield's Ricky Bibey are all in danger of missing the Cardiff jamboree after being summoned to appear at a disciplinary hearing tonight following incidents in the last round of Super League matches – Hock facing a suspension of up to six matches because he is up on two separate charges.