Rugby: Newcastle Sign All Black Hayman

Newcastle will today announce that they have signed the New Zealand prop Carl Hayman, indisputably the leading tight-head in the world, in a move which will further alarm the major southern hemisphere unions, who yesterday issued a strongly worded statement backing the Six Nations unions in their battle with French and English clubs over the Heineken Cup.

At the age of 27 the 35-cap Hayman is in his prime and, although the majority of southern hemisphere players who have moved to England and France in the professional era have done so at the end of their international careers, the Sanzar unions are concerned that players are being targeted at a younger age. Hayman's All Black team-mates Chris Jack, Rico Gear and Luke McAlister are also set to move to Europe after the World Cup, Byron Kelleher has already signed for Agen and Aaron Mauger is joining Leicester. All six players are under 30.

The Sanzar unions said in their statement that national unions should govern the game at every level and any watering down of that process would threaten the game internationally. Reports that Hayman, whose contract with the New Zealand Rugby Union is up after the World Cup, is moving to Newcastle for £350,000 a year will add to the worries of the three, who claimed at an International Rugby Board meeting last month that the financial strength of clubs in France and England was forcing them to pay salaries to players that they could not afford. The Otago union, whose deal with Hayman has two years to run, said yesterday that it would not seek a transfer fee for him and would support any decision he made.

Hayman's signing is a major coup for the Guinness Premiership as its clubs battle to gain a controlling influence in the tournaments they play in. The board of European Rugby Cup Ltd yesterday arranged to meet on May 8 to consider next season's Heineken Cup, which as things stand will not involve the top clubs in England and France.

Llanelli Scarlets' chief executive, Stuart Gallacher, an ERC director, yesterday called on the Rugby Football Union to give ground to prevent European rugby's premier club tournament withering, to the financial detriment of the Celtic nations. He said: "We all stand to suffer because of what is essentially a dispute between the union and clubs in England. I am more critical of the RFU than the clubs, whose request for shares on ERC is not unreasonable. I agree with them that it is an issue which should be dealt with in isolation, not as part of a wider agreement over elite players."

Treble-chasing Leicester have suffered a heavy blow in the build-up to Saturday's Heineken Cup semi-final against the Scarlets after learning that their influential Italian prop Martin Castrogiovanni is likely to miss the rest of the season because of a damaged hamstring.

Castrogiovanni's absence this weekend will be felt even more keenly if the Tigers' Argentinian prop Marcos Ayerza loses an appeal today against his three-week suspension for striking Stade Français's Rémy Martin in the quarter-final. If the ban is confirmed Leicester's front-row resources will be seriously stretched before three big games in eight days. Registration issues prevent a comeback for the 36-year-old Graham Rowntree, and Pat Howard, the director of rugby, will also be without the experienced Paul Burke against the Scarlets. Instead he is set to recall two Lions in the shape of Lewis Moody and Geordan Murphy and retain the prolific Tom Varndell in his starting line-up.