Soliola Injured In Bar Incident

A New Zealand rugby league player has been left with serious facial injuries after an incident at a Merseyside bar.

St Helens' Sia Soliola required hospital treatment after being found by police outside Imperial Bar on Ormskirk Street in the town at about 02:20 GMT.

A second 19-year-old man was also injured in the attack.

A 32-year-old man from Speke, Liverpool, a 23-year-old man from Lymm, Cheshire, and a 24-year-old man from Chester have been arrested.

A spokesman for the club said Soliola had been injured but would not comment on the attack.

He would not say whether the injuries would keep the centre from playing against Bradford Bulls on Saturday.

The Kiwi international has been a regular for the Saints in the 2012 season and played in Friday's home defeat by Hull FC.

Catalan Dragons Stun Saints

Catalan Dragons claimed a sensational last-gasp victory over St Helens to go top of the Super League for the first time in their seven-year history.

The French side trailed 26-8 midway through the second half but roared back to win 34-32, scoring the match-winning try through Daryl Millard with the last play of the game.

Saints made a fast start with some sparkling rugby and led 20-8 at half-time, with no hint of the dramatic turnaround to come.

It took them just three minutes to open the scoring, with winger Jamie Foster gathering the ball from Lee Gaskell's grubber kick to touch down.

The Dragons levelled when prop Remi Casty shrugged off the attempted challenge of Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook to touch down, but Saints were always the more inventive side in the first half.

Lomax jinked his way through the Catalan defence to get prop Anthony Laffranchi over on 15 minutes and Gary Wheeler took Paul Wellens' pass to beat three defenders to score a third try.

Foster, whose three missed kicks ultimately cost his side both points in last Sunday's 36-36 draw against Hull KR, converted all three tries and also kicked a first-half penalty but Scott Dureau kept the visitors in touch with a penalty on the stroke of half-time.

Dominance

Saints quickly confirmed their dominance four minutes into the second half when 20-year-old right winger Tommy Makinson scooped up a pass from Michael Shenton by his ankles to cross for his side's fourth try.

Foster's fifth goal made it 26-8 but the French side were far from finished and set up a tense finish with a scoring burst of three tries in eight minutes.

James Roby and Makinson combined with a terrific last-ditch tackle to deny Millard but, when the Dragons moved the ball the full width of the pitch, Steve Menzies got winger Damien Blanch over on 57 minutes.

That was enough to inject renewed confidence in the Catalans side as they struck with two more tries in as many minutes.

Foster dropped Millard's kick to gift centre Vincent Duport a touchdown and Dureau finished off a break by Blanch to cut the gap to just four points.

Wheeler then looked to have come to Saints' rescue, intercepting Dureau's pass to score his second try.

However, former Saint Leon Pryce sent second rower Setaimata Sa over for a fifth Catalan try and, with the last move of the match, the visitors somehow kept the ball alive, swinging it the full width of the pitch for Millard to touch down at the corner.

That levelled the scores and, after a lengthy delay while video referee Steve Ganson scrutinised the movement, Dureau kept his nerve to land the winning goal from the touchline.

Flannery to Retire from St. Helen's

St Helens' Australian back-row forward Chris Flannery is set to retire from playing at the end of the season and "do a bit of surfing".

The former Queensland Origin player, who turns 32 in June, is out of contract at the end of the year and will not seek an extension.

"I think this will be my last year," he said during a break in preparations for Friday's Stobart Super League clash with Catalan Dragons at Langtree Park.

"We're going to go back to Australia after this. We've been over here for four and a half, nearly five years now. We've got a couple of young kids so it's time to get back to Australia.

"Hopefully, I'll have a big year this year and finish it off in the right fashion."

Flannery, who joined St Helens on a three-and-a-half-year deal in the summer of 2007, played in four consecutive losing Super League Grand Finals but missed his side's fifth successive defeat by Leeds last October because of injury.

The tough-tackling forward, who won the 2002 NRL Premiership with Sydney Roosters, is unlikely to seek a new club when he returns home.

"I think I'll hang the boots up," he said. "I'll go back and get some of that sunshine, to the house on the beach and do a bit of surfing. I'm looking forward to it."

Meanwhile, Australia are to scrap their controversial play-off system in favour of the one used in Super League.

On the eve of the new NRL season, the newly-formed Australian Rugby League Commission announced on Wednesday that the convoluted McIntyre model is to make way for a more even-handed top-four, bottom-four format.

The top eight will be divided into two separate groups in week one of the play-offs, as happens in Super League and used to happen in the old Australia Rugby League.

Team one will meet team four and second will play third, with the winners going through to week three with home advantage and the losers receiving a second chance in week two.

In the other pool, the fifth-ranked side will take on team eight while six plays seven, with the winners travelling away to the top-four losers in week two.

The McIntyre system has been used since 1999 but was criticised for failing to reward the teams finishing in the top four and providing potential 'leg-ups' for those clubs ranked further down.

"As the competition has become closer and the impact of 'home-and-away' finals matches even more significant, the system has become a source of increasing debate," said ARLC chief executive David Gallop.

"The allocation of 'home venues' in the second week of the McIntyre system has been a particular concern.

"After going through a thorough process, we are confident that this is the right time for this change."