The former England A coach Richard Hill is leaving Harlequins to return to Wales. Even though he spent only two years at the Stoop after arriving from Ebbw Vale in May 2000, he is the longest serving member of the current coaching staff.

He will take charge of the backs at Newport, resuming his partnership with Leigh Jones, who was appointed the Welsh club's head coach last week. The pair spent two successful years together at Ebbw Vale.

Quins tried to persuade Hill to stay, but his role at the club changed last January when the chief executive Mark Evans took charge of the coaching with the director of rugby John Kingston accepting a subordinate role.

Newport, the runners-up in the Welsh-Scottish League, have invested in Jones and Hill after the decision of the former South Africa coach Ian McIntosh to return to South Africa after one season at Rodney Parade.

Hill is swimming against the tide by leaving England for Wales, where the leading clubs will hold an emergency general meeting on Sunday at which a series of radical administrative reforms will be debated. They are warning that they will become bankrupt unless there is an increase in their funding of nearly 100% by the Welsh Rugby Union.

The Powergen Cup will for the next three seasons carry with it an automatic place in the Heineken Cup for the winners. This season's Powergen Cup winners, London Irish, have already qualfied for the Heineken Cup having finishing fourth in the Premiership. The Rugby Football Union feared that clubs were putting the competition at the bottom of their priorities and by enhancing its value it has persuaded Powergen to continue its backing for the next three years.

· A 21-year-old centre, Virgil Wepener, had nearly half of his index finger bitten off during a club match in Cape Town. "My finger looked like something out of a horror movie," said Wepener, who plays for Temperance.