WARRINGTON Wolves today unveil their new coach.

He is 45-year-old Darryl Van de Velde, the Australian who has had previous English spells with Castleford Tigers and Huddersfield Giants.

There were more than 80 phone calls from interested persons for the vacant coach's job but Warrington had targeted Van de Velde. He has signed a contract until the end of the 1999 season.

The Wolves flew him over from Australia this week for an interview and both sides were delighted with what they heard.

Paul Cullen, who was in charge with Alex Murphy for Warrington's wonderful win over Wigan Warriors on Monday, will be assistant to Van de Velde.

Club chairman Peter Higham says: "We have brought in Darryl because we think he had a good track record with Castleford. He had five years at Wheldon Road and Castleford were then one of the top Yorkshire sides."

Higham highlighted some of the qualities admired in Van de Velde.

He said: "Darryl is a firm disciplinarian and has good man-management skills."

Van de Velde finished as coach of Huddersfield last September after 10 months in the job. He had previously been chief executive at South Queensland Crushers for two years and he was at Castleford before that.

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