There's far too much happening in rugby league for us to let them go."The only way Warrington players will be allowed to play rugby union is if they go to union full-time."Dorahy, the Super League side's coach, added: "I played back-to-back football for five years and I know what the demands are Rest is essential. We've had the centenary season and now the summer league, and I want my players to be fully recovered by the time we get back to full training."St Helens, Warrington's neighbours, have already said that they will not allow their players to play rugby union next winter.Meanwhile, Warrington have welcomed two new arrivals to Wilderspool: the New Zealand scrum-half Willie Swann and Alliance coach Robert Tew, an Australian. Second Division Bramley played in the Leeds Sevens last week and became the first league side to win a union trophy.. Warrington's management team of Alex Murphy and John Dorahy have killed off any hopes their players may have had of playing league in summer and union in winter.

So I'm happy that, even without those three, our squad is very strong."The other match with implications for the top of the table is at Warrington, where Shef- field Eagles are the visitors.Warrington have told their players to forget all about playing rugby union in the winter, but Wigan have no inhibitions about playing that game this afternoon at Twickenham.The portents for them doing well are good. Broncos welcome back Greg Barwick at full-back after injury and move Peter Gill to loose-forward to cover for the absence of the suspended Terry Matterson.Currie believes that his side's recent form is attributable, in part, to the hard line he has taken on discipline. "Since I sacked three players, nobody has been late for training and we have won both our games," he said."We have three new players arriving from Australia next week and Ikram Butt coming out of jail. As Newcastle found out, there is a different type of pressure that comes with being clear at the top, with every other side raising its game against you."For tomorrow evening's game at Knowsley Road, Saints have Scott Gibbs back in the centres after flu, with Alan Hunte dropping down to the substitutes' bench.The London coach, Tony Currie, rates St Helens as the best team in Britain at the moment, but his own side have been performing admirably, including coming back from an 18-point deficit to win at Leeds last week. St Helens can give themselves the psychological boost of going four points clear of Wigan at the top of the European Super League if they beat London Broncos tomorrow. Wigan's previous commitment at the Middlesex Sevens today means that Saints could open up a handy gap between them and their main rivals. "Points in the bag are always the thing to have," Saints' chief executive, David Howes, said "But don't mention that to Kevin Keegan.

That's what we are up against."Hawick: C Turnbull, G Sharp, A Stanger, C Murray, K Suddon, S Welsh, K Reid, B MacDonnell, J Hay, A Johnstone, A Imray, I Elliott, J Graham, B Renwick, G Harris.Watsonians: D Lee, F Henderson, S Hastings, A Garry, J Kerr, D Hodge, J Weston, T Smith, G McKelvey, J Waddell, S Grimes, C Mather, G Hannah, C Brown, I Sinclair.Referee: J Fleming (Boroughmuir).. The present Lebanese government has been more circumspect.Even in the face of the ferocity of the Israeli retaliation against Hizbollah last month, the Arab world held its hand for several days while 10 per cent of the population of Lebanon were driven from their homes, ports were closed, electricity installations near Beirut were bombed, the coast road subjected to shelling and civilian casualties mounted. Man for man, Watsonians are at least the equal of Hawick, but they will be playing to ensure they don't let their town down. The town's most famous son, the television commentator Bill McLaren, has compared the fervour on his doorstep with that shown countrywide after Scotland's 1990 Grand Slam.All a bit ironic in view of the fact that it has taken Scotland 24 years to emulate England and Wales in organising an official cup - largely because of the intransigence of Borderers, who have been wary of any threat to their traditional end-of-season, seven-a-side circuit. However, the SRU finally came up with a competition worth pounds 15,000 to today's winners.Thorburn admits: "I can see where folk who said we held things back are coming from, but Border teams always maintain that, when a cup was introduced, they would be early winners."That has made us more determined, and our players are well aware that Hawick were the first winners of the Border League in 1902 as well as the first winners of the National League in1974, so cup success would complete a treble."Watsonians, whose membership was, until recently, restricted to former pupils of an Edinburgh public school, are wary of the threat posed by opponents motivated by such strong tradition.Their captain, Fergus Henderson, admits: "This final is about so much more than ability It's a nitty gritty thing that's hard to put a finger on. Many a wry smile has been provoked by the passion and enthusiasm with which Border clubs have embraced the first Scottish Rugby Union Tennents' 1556 Scottish rugby cup, due to climax today with a final at Murrayfield between Hawick and Watsonians.