THERE is a press conference scheduled for tomorrow in which it is expected that the new Great Britain head coach will be officially unveiled.

The Rugby Football League might surprise everyone and say that Sven Goran Eriksson or someone else has got the job, but it looks very likely that Bradford Bulls coach Brian Noble is to take the reins.

The strong rumours are that the Lions coaching job will be part-time again, with Brian, I would guess, being reluctant to give up his day-to-day duties with Bradford.

I've known Brian for quite a number of years through the game and I think he's probably the right man for the job. He's captained Great Britain, been on tours, has the coaching experience and knowledge of dealing with world class players. He's a smart bloke and aside from the rugby aspect he's a great man manager with excellent people skills.

I reckon he's the obvious stand-out candidate for the job, but the biggest question mark is whether the job should be a part-time one.

David Waite, who has been head coach, is staying on as performance director and there is every chance he will be quite influential in the running of it, although Brian will have more of a say as regards tactics and team selection.

It will be interesting to see how he goes with what must already be an almighty workload - head coach at the World Champions and combining that with the Great Britain job which will take up a big chunk of time.

It's hard to say whether he should be full-time and to some extent it depends on the job description and what roles David Waite takes on - but Australia don't have a full-time coach and it works for them.

It goes without saying that, should he be unveiled as the Lions head coach tomorrow, we wish him well.

As for the Knights, we face a very tough game this Sunday away to Barrow Raiders. It's a long trip to west Cumbria and to lighten the travelling load, we will be heading up to Lancaster on the Saturday night and than making the much shorter trip from north Lancashire across to Barrow on the day of the game.

We'll have a training session on Saturday and then head up after that. I will be picking who is rooming with who, but I can tell you now that Danny Brough will be with me so I can keep an eye on him. Sorry, Danny!

Hopefully the stay-over will aid our preparations and in getting a good result.

Barrow defeated Hunslet on Sunday and are unbeaten in the league and, like us, have made it through to the quarter-finals of the Arriva Trains Cup. It doesn't get much harder than this but we should be going into the game with plenty of confidence after our last two performances against Featherstone and Sheffield and hopefully there will be another big contingent of Knights fans giving us their usual wonderful backing.

Updated: 09:29 Wednesday, May 05, 2004