HERE is your rugby league news, in brief, from the past fortnight - keeping you up to date with all the happenings across the game at Super League and Championship level.

The most recent news appears first:

- Kevin Sinfield says he will not stop raising funds to fight motor neurone disease until a cure is found.

The former Leeds Rhinos captain helped raise more thn £2m from his 101-mile run from the home of his current club Leicester Tigers to Headingley at the start of the week, on top of the £2.7m he raised from running seven marathons in seven days last December.

- Champions St Helens will kick off the 2022 Betfred Super League season with a home clash against Catalans Dragons on Thursday, February 10, in a repeat of the 2021 Grand Final.

The first Friday night game on Sky Sports will be Hull KR against Wigan while Leeds host Warrington in Channel 4’s first live match the following day and promoted Toulouse Olympique welcome Huddersfield to the Stade Ernest-Wallon for their first top-flight fixture.

- Grand Final runners-up Catalans Dragons have followed up the signing of Mitchell Pearce with the capture of his former Sydney Roosters team-mate Dylan Napa.

Prop forward Napa, who turned 29 earlier this month, was a free agent after failing to receive a new offer from Canterbury Bulldogs and has signed a two-year deal with an option for a third year in the south of France.

- Wakefield have signed Australian forward Jai Whitbread, who spent the last month of the 2021 season with Leigh.

Whitbread, who became a free agent when the Centurions were relegated from Super League, joins Trinity on a one-year deal with the option of a second season at Belle Vue.

The 23-year-old prop forward made 30 appearances for Gold Coast Titans in the NRL prior to his move to England.

- Super League will be shown live on free-to-air television for the first time in 2022 after officials agreed a two-year deal with Channel 4.

The Leeds-based broadcaster will show 10 matches a year, starting with Leeds Rhinos’ opening game against Warrington – Daryl Powell’s first league game in charge of his new club – on Saturday, February 12 with a lunchtime kick-off.

- Catalans Dragons president Bernard Guasch has been handed a £10,000 fine for his criticism of match officials in the immediate aftermath of his team’s Grand Final defeat.

After being incensed by the decisions of referee Liam Moore and the rest of his officials during the Dragons’ 12-10 defeat by St Helens at Old Trafford in October, Guasch vowed he would never again allow his team to play a final under English referees.

In an interview with the Perpignan-based L’Independent newspaper, Guasch said: “As long as I’m president of the Catalans Dragons, I’ll never play a Super League final again until we have three Australian referees.”

- Former Royal Marine commando Jack Smith has rejoined the Rugby Football League’s panel of full-time referees.

Smith, who was shot through the chest by a Taliban sniper in Afghanistan in 2010, was a full-time official from 2016-17 but reverted to being part-time for the last four years.

Now 32, he is back on the nine-strong Super League panel, alongside new appointees Liam Rush, who will become the youngest full-time referee at 21, and Australia-born James Vella.

They will fill the vacancies created by the decisions of Robert Hicks and Scott Mikalauskas to go part-time.

- Featherstone have boosted their Super League promotion hopes with the signing of experienced centre Joey Leilua from NRL club Wests Tigers.

The 29-year-old Leilua, a two-time Dally M centre of the year, becomes Rovers’ second Samoa international recruit after second rower Jesse Sene-Lefao joined them from Castleford last week.

New Featherstone coach Brian McDermott said: “This signing is another clear demonstration of this club’s unwavering ambition and focus on gaining Super League promotion.

- Castleford are set to scrap plans to move to a new stadium and instead develop the Wheldon Road ground that has been their home for the last 94 years.

The Super League club have been talking since 2014 about relocating to a new purpose-built stadium as part of a brand new commercial development at Junction 32 of the M62 near Glasshoughton but are now poised to stay put at a revamped Jungle.

The move follows a proposal from Wakefield Council to give up to £2million to all three clubs in their district – Wakefield and Featherstone are the others – to invest in their current grounds and improve community use.

- Former Leeds captain Kevin Sinfield has been urged to scale back his daredevil exploits after his latest gruelling fund-raising challenge left him physically ill.

The England rugby league international made a triumphant if painful return to Headingley after completing his Extra Mile Challenge in aid of former team-mate Rob Burrow, which has raised over £2m.

- Championship club York City Knights have signed Huddersfield’s Ireland international Ronan Michael on a season-long loan deal for 2022.

The 21-year-old prop moved to Australia in 2020 with a view to playing for Canberra’s Under-20s but was prevented from doing so by the coronavirus pandemic and went on to make his Super League debut for the Giants against Wigan that year.

- Newcastle will once again host Super League’s annual Magic Weekend but with a new summer date in 2022.

The two-day event has traditionally been held in May since its introduction in 2007. Exceptions were made in 2011 when it kicked off the season and this year when it was pushed back to September because of the coronavirus pandemic which forced its cancellation in 2020.

St James’ Park, which has hosted five of the last six Magic Weekends, will stage the 2022 event on July 9 and 10.

- Former Tonga and New Zealand international Sam Moa has returned to Catalans Dragons to become assistant to head coach Steve McNamara.

The 35-year-old prop forward spent four seasons as a player with the Dragons and was in their Challenge Cup-winning team of 2018 before leaving at the end of the 2020 season.

- Leeds have promoted 17-year-old centre Max Simpson into their Super League squad for 2022.

Simpson, who came through the club’s academy, has been given a four-year full-time contract and awarded the number 28 shirt that became vacant when Corey Hall left to join Wakefield.

- Championship club Featherstone have announced the signing of Samoa international Jesse Sene-Lefao from Super League neighbours Castleford.

Rovers confirmed the news after Sene-Lefao, a New Zealand national who played in the NRL for Cronulla and Manly, secured indefinite leave to remain in the United Kingdom.

- Relegated Leigh have signed Tonga international half-back Ata Hingano, who spent the latter part of the 2021 season with Salford.

Hingano, 24, enjoyed a spectacular 2017 World Cup, starting all five games as Tonga, under current St Helens coach Kristian Woolf, beat Scotland, Samoa, New Zealand and Lebanon to reach the semi-finals, where they lost 20-18 to England.

- Former Wigan and England forward Joel Tomkins has announced his retirement from rugby league with immediate effect.

The 34-year-old older brother of England captain Sam Tomkins had signed a one-year contract to play for Leigh for 2022 after ending a two-year spell with Catalans Dragons but has now hung up his boots with the blessing of the Centurions.

- Relegated Leigh have appointed former Wigan boss Adrian Lam as their new head coach.

The 51-year-old former Papua New Guinea international, who is the current assistant to Australia coach Mal Meninga, will take up his new role straight away, aiming to mastermind an immediate return to Super League.

- Wigan have confirmed the return of outside back Iain Thornley and announced the signing of Brazil-born prop forward Ramon Silva for 2022.

Both players have signed two-year deals with the option of a third year at the DW Stadium.

Thornley, 30, who can play at centre or on the wing, returns to his home-town club after a seven-year absence. A product of the Warriors’ academy, he was part of the 2013 double-winning team.

Silva, 20, who was born in Sao Paulo and moved to the UK with his parents when he was three, joins the Warriors from London Broncos’ academy, where he played alongside his new Wigan team-mate Kai Pearce-Paul.

- Former Wigan forward Stephen Holgate has died at the age of 49, his first club Workington have announced.

Holgate began his career with Workington in 1994 and was in the Wigan team that beat Leeds in the inaugural Super League Grand Final in 1998.

He made one appearance for England in 1995 and also played for Hull and Halifax before retiring in 2000.

- Australia and New Zealand have signed up for the re-scheduled 2021 Rugby League World Cup, organisers have confirmed.

The tournament, which was due to start on October 23, was pushed back 12 months after the Australian Rugby League Commission and New Zealand Rugby League both pulled out due to concerns around player safety amid Covid-19.

- Catalans Dragons have announced the signing of Australian playmaker Mitchell Pearce.

The 32-year-old half-back has signed a two-year deal, with the option of a third season in the south of France, and is a straight replacement for fellow countryman James Maloney, who retired at the end of the 2021 season.