Collazo leaves Gloucester amid fears of financial crisis

To lose one international prop may be considered unfortunate, but to lose a second within a few weeks of the first is seriously worrying. Gloucester, who parted company with the Italian tight head Federico Pucciariello before the start of the Premiership season, have also waved a reluctant farewell to Patrice Collazo, who signed a three-year deal with Toulouse yesterday and will now spend his weekends dismantling French front rows rather than English ones.

Kingsholm officials attempted to put a brave face on Collazo's sudden departure last night, going to the ridiculous extreme of describing the former Stade Français prop as a "peripheral player". (Collazo, one of the most destructive scrummagers in European rugby, was about as peripheral to Gloucester as Freddie Mercury was to Queen). But those feeble efforts at news management were quickly swamped by rumours of a fast-developing financial crisis at the club, with players' agents bracing themselves for an imminent battle over possible pay cuts.

The cash-flow problems must be seen against the wider background of Tom Walkinshaw's well-documented struggle to keep the Arrows motor racing team in business. Walkinshaw owns both Arrows and Gloucester, and Kingsholm insiders fear their major investor's Formula One difficulties are impacting on the rugby side of the operation, to the extent that other members of the senior squad – the wing Daren O'Leary and the full-back Chris Catling among them – may soon follow Collazo through the exit door.

Gloucester's wage bill is as high as any in the Premiership, but Nigel Melville, who moved to Kingsholm as director of rugby midway through last season, has always insisted that strength in depth is the key to a meaningful title challenge. Melville managed to compensate for Pucciariello's departure to Bourgoin by signing the Argentinian prop Rodrigo Roncero, but Collazo is a very different kettle of front-row aggression and will prove well nigh impossible to replace. Suddenly, the Cherry-and-White tilt at the Premiership looks flawed.

Ironically enough, Bristol will arrive at Kingsholm for this afternoon's derby with a major new overseas signing on board. Daryl Gibson, the All Black centre from the all-conquering Canterbury Crusaders, makes an immediate appearance in midfield, having arrived in the West Country last weekend. He replaces Martin Shaw and joins two other internationals, David Rees and Phil Christophers, in a threequarter line that should, over the next month or so, begin to make some reasonable use of the prime possession habitually served up by the physical Bristol pack.

Danny Grewcock, the England lock whose five-week suspension for reckless use of the boot is on hold pending an appeal next Thursday, will lead Bath at Northampton this afternoon, much to the relief of those coaches who were pretty much at a loss to know what they might do without him. Dan Lyle and Andy Lloyd, back-rowers by instinct, were among the candidates to join the inexperienced Andy Beattie in the engine-room had Grewcock been unavailable, and for all their talents, they would not have had much fun attempting to live with a Saints pack boasting seven internationals. One of them, the former Wallaby Mark Connors, is still in dispute with Bath over alleged breach of contract.

Rob Howley, who looked every inch the signing of the season until he dislocated a finger last weekend, misses Wasps' home match with Saracens tomorrow, as does the wing Shane Roiser and the hooker Trevor Leota, who swallowed a gallon or so of his own medicine when he was shoulder-charged into the middle of next month by the Bath prop Alessio Galasso. Rough justice, but justice all the same.