Venter faces disciplinary hearing

RUGBY:SARACENS' DIRECTOR of rugby Brendan Venter faces a misconduct complaint arising from comments made in the wake of his club's defeat to Leinster in the Heineken Cup match at Wembley. The South African will appear before an independent disciplinary committee at ERC offices in Dublin next Thursday.

Venter was critical of the manner in which referee France’s Christophe Berdos handled the Leinster match while also expressing his disappointment at the application of certain laws in the tournament. Following an investigation by ERC Disciplinary officer Roger O’Connor, a misconduct complaint has been lodged by the tournament’s governing body.

An ERC statement read: “The misconduct complaint is that the Saracens Director of Rugby made a number of comments in which he brought into disrepute ERC, the tournament, the match officials and/or the sport of rugby union.

“The complaint will be heard by an Independent Disciplinary Committee made up of France’s Jean-Noël Couraud, Antony Davies of England and Ireland’s Pat Barriscale at ERC’s offices in Dublin on Thursday, November 4th.”

Bayonne’s director of rugby Christian Gajan faces identical charges following his remarks after the French club’s defeat to Connacht in the Amlin Challenge Cup on the same weekend.

Montpellier also face official censure because, according to the official ERC release, “by omitting a number of its international and other players from its Amlin Challenge Cup squad, (they) failed to nominate its strongest possible squad as required by the Tournament Rules.”

Ireland’s Pat Barriscale will act as chairman for this particular hearing – England’s Anthony Davies chairs the Gajan hearing with France’s Jean-Noel Couraud presiding over the Venter case.

Meanwhile, Leinster coach Joe Schmidt has delayed naming his side for the Magners League clash with Edinburgh at the RDS tomorrow until lunch-time today. One player who could make the match squad is the province’s new signing, New Zealand Maori prop Clint Newland, who is on a short-term deal until February.

The 30-year-old Newland, who arrived on Tuesday, has played 94 times for Hawke’s Bay in the NPC (since his debut in 1999) and in 24 games for the Highlanders in the Super 14/15 since 2008.

Schmidt said: “Mike Ross will be coming back to us tomorrow evening (Friday) so we have him and we have Clint Newland who has finished his commitments at Hawke’s Bay in the ITM Cup. He (Newland) doesn’t know what we’re doing, let alone all the names in the team yet, but he might benefit from getting a bit of an outing as well. Mike (Ross) having trained the whole week with the Ireland team, that might mean we give Clint a bit of a go as well.

“He’s (Newland) a big man, pretty capable of locking down a scrum. He’s come out of Hawke’s Bay but he’s played a lot of Super 14 with Otago Highlanders. He went to New Plymouth Boys High, had a real upbringing steeped in rugby and he’s from the same province as Carl Hayman and Greg Feek himself. I think they just breed them in Taranaki.”

Scrum consultant Greg Feek’s work with Leinster has been recognised by Ireland coach Declan Kidney, who has invited him to work with the national side. Schmidt suggested that his fellow New Zealander could be in line for a more permanent role with the provincial side.

“He’s in and out, really. It’s a fixed term thing at the moment, but that could develop into something else.

“We don’t have a defence coach. We have three coaches, as opposed to five last year, so there is scope to get Greg involved more regularly than he has been so far.”

Schmidt confirmed that Jonathan Sexton wouldn’t be available for the Edinburgh match, Shane Horgan probably would, Mike Ross could with Dominic Ryan, Stephen Keogh and Paul O’Donohue likely to start. Andrew Conway and Rhys Ruddock are likely to be on the bench.