Here are the latest rugby headlines for Wednesday, April 20.
Biggar to learn fate
Wales and Northampton Saints fly-half Dan Biggar is set to learn his fate today as he faces a disciplinary panel following his red card in last weekend's defeat to Gloucester. The No. 10 was sent from the field for a high tackle on Lions team-mate Chris Harris.
There were few complaints about the decision, though the 32-year-old is likely to be looking at a six-week ban reduced to three for a good previous record, provided he pleads guilty to the foul play.
Read more: Meeting the Wales rugby warrior who held his own in a land of giants
Northampton currently have four games left of the season but they look set to be without their star man for a significant portion of their run-in as they look to challenge for a play-off spot in the Gallagher Premiership. They currently sit in fifth place, trailing Exeter by four points although they do have a game in hand.
After the incident at Kingsholm, Biggar got into an altercation with a fan, with stewards having to intervene after a man in the stands hurled abuse at the Welshman. Read more about that here.
Quins boss hits out at 'farcical' Euro format
Harlequins head honcho Tabai Matson has hit out at the new European Champions Cup format after his side were knocked out of the tournament at the weekend in dramatic fashion.
With the new two-leg format in play for the round of 16, Quins went down 60-59 to Montpellier over the course of the tie, sending them out of the competition and the French side through to the latter stages of the tournament. Matson took no issue with his team being beaten across the two 80-minute matches, but did have qualms with the format.
Quins stormed the pool stages of the competition, finishing second in pool B, while Montpellier scraped through in seventh in pool A. Matson does not believe his side were fairly rewarded for their early-competition form.
“It’s pretty tough,” he said. “On reflection, we finished second in our pool and they finished seventh in their pool and they basically get a free crack. I am not sure in the final 16 there was any advantage for us to finish [as high as we did]. Ultimately we won five games, they won two but it’s not sour grapes.
"They were better than us over the last two games, so they deserved to go through. I have got no qualms about that but it does make the first part of pool play farcical if they can get two cracks at it and you don’t really get an advantage from finishing on top of the table.”
Lawes suffers gruesome injury
England star Courtney Lawes is facing a spell on the sidelines after suffering a gruesome injury against Gloucester. The abrasive back-rower dislocated his thumb early in the contest and was unable to look at the injury initially.
Saints boss Chris Boyd gave an insight into what happened. He said: “The hand specialist will come back and say X, Y or Z and whatever he says will happen. I’m not sure whether a scan will determine that but he certainly needs specialist consultation to see what the best course of action is going forward.
“It [the injury] was quite nasty. The bone actually came out, but it either popped back in or it was put back in and it has been irrigated and sewn back up again. He has still got some medical decisions to be made around the skeletal function of the thumb and the muscle and ligament situation.
“Until we get a clear medical view, all I can say is he won’t play on Saturday. He came into training today. He was disappointed. He didn’t want to look at it because he knew it was going to be a bit challenging. He’s as good as can be.”
