THE HERALD REPORTS
Champions face player registration appeal

KEVIN FERRIE, Chief Rugby Writer September 26 2005

Glasgow Hawks' runaway lead in the BT Premiership is under threat with Melrose claiming that they should be allowed to replay the first game of the season.
The Borders side were beaten by the champions in the first match of the season, but Hawks allegedly fielded a player, Nick Cox, who was not registered.
The matter has been looked into by the SRU Championship Committee, who have cleared Hawks of any wrong doing and Melrose officials have accepted there was no deliberate attempt to cheat.
Hawks made every effort to ensure they had clearance for the former England under-21 prop, checking repeatedly with Murrayfield before he played.
The SRU have accepted that the problem should have shown up on their registration scheme, but as it operates largely by internet, problems have arisen.
Melrose believe that on a weekend as other clubs opted not to field players because they had not been given full clearance, the leaders have gained an unfair advantage.
Mike Dalgety, director of rugby at The Greenyards, said: "We don't accept the explanation we have been given. The Union have no responsibility for international clearance other than to collect information.
"We have been told that under IRB regulations gaining clearance is the responsibility of clubs and the players. Yet we have now been told they have decided no sanction should be taken against Hawks because of problems with the domestic registrations scheme."
Hugh Barrow, the Hawks secretary who received official SRU clearance for Cox to play back in June, was defensive about the situation.
His concern regarding the computer problems was such that he went to the length of lodging this season's registered players directly with Richard McGhee, the championship committee secretary, as "a belt and braces" exercise.
"We don't think that, in the circumstances surrounding the on-line system, we've got a case to answer," Barrow added.
Dalgety, though, believes that Murrayfield officials wrongly attempted to put the onus on Melrose, suggesting there was a problem with teams trying to get rivals penalised. "What we are asking the championship committee to do is deal with this properly," he said.
"There has to be consistency and while no-one wants to see points deducted, we would take a replay because no team should get an unfair advantage."

This article was originally posted on 26-Sep-2005, 07:39 by Hugh Barrow.
Last updated by Hugh Barrow on 26-Sep-2005, 07:40.