Gloucester ban Hazell following brawl review
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Your support makes all the difference.Gloucester have suspended their flanker Andy Hazell following an internal review into the first-half brawl at Northampton last week.
Hazell appears before a Rugby Football Union disciplinary hearing on Tuesday but the club will still hold its own hearing after that as they reinforce their standards for robust but disciplined play. It means the talented Hazell misses today's West Country derby against Bath, a match for which the Pumas prop Rodrigo Roncero returns from World Cup duty with Argentina.
His presence in the Cherry and Whites' front row will cause Bath a few headaches - not that the Zurich Premiership leaders do not have enough problems already, with an incredible 11 backs unavailable through World Cup calls or injury.
Little wonder that yesterday they announced their second loan signing in the space of a couple of days following the acquisition of Wasps' Paul Sampson earlier in the week. The latest addition to the squad is the Blue Bulls winger Wylie Human, who is expected to stay for at least a month.
Bath did not waste any time in drafting Human into the team for tomorrow's titanic visit to Kingsholm - the player flew in yesterday, trained in the morning and was inked on to the team sheet before midday.
Sampson is on the bench and Ollie Barkley makes his first start of the season at fly-half for a match that has greater significance for Rob Fidler - the Bath lock makes his first appearance at the ground he called home until his move South in the summer.
Unfortunately for Leeds Tykes their Argentinian winger Diego Albanese could not get back in time to take his place in the squad that travels to Sale today, but at least Clive Stuart-Smith has recovered enough from a knee injury suffered in the opening game of the season to take his place on the bench.
The match sees Leeds' former England winger David Rees returning to his old stamping ground of a few years ago. In his 40-odd games with Sale from 1995 to 1999 Rees scored 11 tries.
He will run up against Charlie Hodgson, who last started a match for the Sharks back in February. Another player back to full fitness is Rob Howley, who leaves the bench and replaces scrum-half Peter Richards to lead the team up at struggling Leicester, who have Dan Lyle back from World Cup duty with the US Eagles.
Tani Fuga returns at hooker for Harlequins, who travel to Northampton where they will face an unchanged pack from the one that helped overcome Gloucester. Mark Tucker is out with a broken jaw, suffered in last week's game.
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