Rugby Union: Horsman Slates Politics After Missing Wales Date

The Wales and Worcester prop Chris Horsman yesterday described the politics of English rugby as beyond repair, a week after he had been forced by Premier Rugby to pull out of the squad to face Australia because the match fell outside the official international window.

Horsman turned up to train with Wales at the beginning of the week and was named as a replacement, but he had to return to Worcester after Premier Rugby refused to sanction his release for last Saturday's Test despite the Warriors being willing to let him go in return for having the forward available this week and next.

"I was absolutely gutted," said Horsman. "I have been stopped from playing rugby because of various things, including cancer, and to be caught in the middle of something I had no control over was devastating. It was not the club's fault and there was nothing I could do.

"The politics of it is beyond repair. Worcester and Wales tried to find an amicable agreement but I ended being caught up in something bigger."

Premier Rugby and the Rugby Football Union are to meet next week with signs of a breakthrough in the dispute which has seen the English clubs contemplate pulling out of the Heineken Cup at the end of the season.

The RFU this week refused to back Premier Rugby's proposal to shake up the way the Heineken Cup was run, but the governing body said it might reconsider if the clubs agreed to changes in the elite player scheme regarding training days, appearances and rest periods. With the board of European Rugby Club due to meet two weeks today, time is running out and the chief executive of Premier Rugby, Mark McCafferty, said the clubs were ready to discuss the Heineken Cup and the elite player scheme as a package.

"We are always willing to talk," he said. "We are looking for the RFU to be flexible over Europe and we are prepared to talk about the elite player agreement beyond the end of next year's World Cup. We have promised ERC that we will make every effort to resolve everything."

The RFU chairman Martyn Thomas said: "We would welcome a discussion with Premier Rugby about the two issues. What we are not prepared to do is make concessions over the Heineken Cup without having anything in return."

Johnnie Beattie and Rob Dewey are set to make their international debuts in Scotland's opening autumn Test on Saturday against Romania. Beattie, the 20-year-old Glasgow Warriors No8, and the Edinburgh centre Dewey, aged 23, will start at Murrayfield. The stand-off Phil Godman and the tight-head prop Euan Murray will make their first Scotland starts after winning caps from the bench.

Scotland: H Southwell (Edinburgh); Webster (Edinburgh), Di Rollo (Edinburgh), Dewey (Edinburgh), Lamont (Northampton Saints); Godman (Edinburgh), Blair (Edinburgh); Kerr (Border Reivers), Hall (Edinburgh), Murray (Glasgow Warriors), Hines (Perpignan), Murray (Edinburgh), White (Sale Sharks, capt), Beattie (Glasgow Warriors), Brown (Border Reivers).

Replacements: S Lawson (Glasgow Warriors), Jacobsen (Edinburgh), Smith (Edinburgh), Hamilton (Leicester Tigers), Callam (Edinburgh), Cusiter (Border Reivers), Paterson (Edinburgh).