Hearts-in-mouth time for London Welsh over Tyson Keats hearing

London Welsh could be all but relegated on Tuesday.

Their RFU panel hearing looking into allegations they fielded an ineligible player – scrum half Tyson Keats – could dock the Exiles points, sending them to the bottom of the Premiership table, and with a tough run-in of games to come.

Welsh are still 11th in the 12-team league, on 22 points. Sale have 19 points and London Irish have 24. Ninth-placed Worcester, on the back of a win this weekend, should be safe on 32.

Welsh will argue Keats, a New Zealander, is eligible to play for England on account of British grandparents, meaning his registration as an English player would not have been in error.

It means for the second time in less than a year, London Welsh’s status will be decided off the pitch.

For more information on the charge and the defence to be mounted by the club, read this overview on ESPN Scrum.

• Championship team London Scottish were docked three points this season for fielding an ineligible player in one game. Keats played in nine.
• Exeter were deducted two points for fielding too many overseas players in a game against Leeds in 2011.
• In 2007, Leicester were docked a point for having played Ian Humphreys, who was temporarily registered with another club.

London Welsh 25-26 Sale Sharks

I’ve been banging on about for them basically since this blog started, but yesterday, finally, I made it to a London Welsh game.

Frustratingly, despite Welsh scoring 13 straight points in the second half to take a 25-20 lead, bottom-of-the-table Sale managed to sneak a 26-25 win.

The stand I was in was much more full, honestly

It was a priceless four points for the Sharks, and although the Exiles picked up a losing bonus point, London Welsh face a seriously tough fight in the battle to avoid relegation. After the weekend results, they remain 10th on 22 points, just two ahead of London Irish in 11th and three ahead of Sale. The Worcester Warriors, with 26 points, are far from safe in ninth with seven games remaining.

But Welsh now face a run of four consecutive away games, where standing points will be at a premium. A win for Irish and Sale and Lyn Jones’s men could be bottom.

Not that the games at Oxford United’s Kassam Stadium can feel much like home in themselves. It’s a great ground for a team of Oxford United’s stature (talk about damning them with faint praise…), and is obviously much bigger than London Welsh’s Old Deer Park home.

But with no real links to Oxford, it’s hardly a surprise the Exiles’ home games have the lowest average attendance of any Aviva Premiership team. Yesterday’s crowd of 4,082, slightly lower than that average, should not be sniffed at considering the difficulty in attracting a new fan base to an out-of-town stadium in a new city, but it meant the Kassam Stadium was two-thirds empty.

Those 4,082 witnessed a see-saw contest between two lowly sides and two celebrity-conscious, former international outside halves who have had more than their fair share of off-the-field problems in the form of Gavin Henson and Danny Cipriani.

But while Cipriani’s kicking from hand was decidedly dodgy, Henson was superb, thoroughly deserving his man-of-the-match award and the subsequent plaudits from national reporters.

His control of the backline was phenomenal. His passing was excellent, floating some wide, flicking others out of the back of his hand, but always accurate, setting up an attack, exploiting half-gaps and setting up the hosts’ sole try, scored by Canada international Phil Mackenzie. He really was a class apart, and did not deserve to be on the losing side.

In fact, he shouldn’t have been. With Sale looking to run out the clock, they lost the ball deep in London Welsh territory. But the backs spread the ball quickly, and left wing Nick Scott had acres of room to run into, plus an overlap. But instead of passing, he inexplicably cut inside. The move soon broke down and London Welsh lost – Scott will be hoping against hope his decision does not cost his side its Premiership place.