Yates to face RFU tribunal after punching allegation

Kevin Yates, one of the great lost talents of English rugby, is in trouble again. Five years after shouldering the blame and serving the time for an ear-biting incident that scarred the reputation of the domestic club game almost as badly as it did the left side of Simon Fenn's head, the former international prop has been accused of punching another Antipodean flanker, Andrew Blowers, during the Sale-Northampton match at Edgeley Park last Friday night.

This is something of an embarrassment all round. Yates, who was capped by England in Argentina in 1997 and is widely seen as the brightest of a new generation of red rose front-rowers, hardly needs another brush with the RFU's disciplinary corps and could certainly do without being implicated in an incident that earned Blowers, the one-time All Black forward, a night in hospital.

Initial reports suggested Blowers had suffered a fractured cheekbone, and while the diagnosis was later changed to common or garden concussion, he still felt the need to consult a neurosurgeon earlier this week. He is not expected to play for another fortnight at least.

The Premiership would also have preferred this not to have happened, especially in the very first game of the new season. Yates, on the field as a 50th-minute substitute for Sale was alleged to have thumped Blowers in injury time, but was not penalised by the referee, Chris White. None of the officials spotted any misdemeanour, but he was subsequently identified by an independent citing officer following a study of the match video. He will appear before an RFU tribunal in Bristol on Tuesday.

Yates must have had his fill of tribunals, having achieved considerable notoriety while playing in a cup match for Bath against London Scottish in 1998. Fenn, an Australian, was bitten at a collapsed scrum, and the ensuing scandal prompted Bath to hold an internal investigation. Yates denied being the culprit but was suspended by the club anyway. The RFU then found him guilty and suspended him for six months. Yates reappeared briefly in Bath colours, but was a shadow of his former self. In 1999, he accepted an offer to play provincial rugby in New Zealand and disappeared from the English game for the best part of three years.

Another player in trouble, the Scotland wing Nikki Walker, received rather better news yesterday. Charged on two counts of assault following an incident in a Hawick pub, Walker has persuaded Jedburgh Sheriff Court to adjourn the case until 12 December, thereby clearing the way for a trip to Australia and a run in next month's World Cup. Walker is a candidate to play in his country's opening fixture, against Japan in Townsville, on 12 October.

Still on World Cup business, South Africa have whistled up Jean de Villiers, the 22-year-old Western Province centre, as replacement for Gcobani Bobo, who tore knee ligaments during the Springboks' deeply unimpressive 45-24 warm-up victory over Free State Cheetahs on Tuesday. De Villiers is one of the hottest acts in South African rugby at the moment - he has scored five tries in six Currie Cup matches - and might have expected to make the original party, given the long-term injury problems affecting the outstanding Marius Joubert.

Unfortunately, De Villiers' own injury record is less than encouraging. His only international appearance, against France in Marseilles last year, lasted just seven minutes before he found himself disappearing down the tunnel on a stretcher. The problem? Torn knee ligaments, as coincidence would have it.