WIGAN Warriors will this week finalise the deal to keep Gary Connolly at Central Park.

The 26-year-old Great Britain centre is poised to sign a six-month extension to his contract that will keep him at Wigan until the Millenium.

The Warriors originally tried to buy out Connolly's ARL contract but are consoled by the fact that the player will be 28 by the time he is due to go to Australia and they will have had the best six years of his career.

The deal will be ratififed despite the Warriors being 24pc over the 50pc salary cap limit and stand to lose up to £33,000 a month in central funding from the League, who have imposed a signing ban on the Super League favourites.

However, Wigan chairman Mike Nolan is confident of getting under the limits thanks to a re-negotiation of the club's Tesco sponsorship and anticipated windfall from next month's appearance at Wembley.

Speaking after last night RFL Council meeting Nolan said: "We now know exactly what the rules are and it doesn't make much difference to us. We will recalculate our figures and we should be there or threabouts."

Lee Hansen has accepted a deal to pay-off his contrac.Warrington Wolves are favourites to sign the former Leigh prop.

LEIGH Centurions and Swinton Lions places in Division One are safe for at least two years.

The RL Council yesterday voted in a 'no relegation' rule. Over the next two years five teams will be promoted from Division Two, making a 16-team first division by the year 2000.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.