The Wales captain Colin Charvis has been dropped by Swansea after missing a training session, nine months after he was left out of the national squad for going on holiday during preparations for the Six Nations Championship.
Charvis, who played two Tests as a replacement back- row during the Lions tour to Australia last year, has been relegated to the bench for the Celtic League game against Caerphilly tomorrow but yesterday withdrew from the 22 because of a knee injury.
Charvis and the flanker Dean Thomas missed a weight-training session called last weekend after Swansea's defeat in Munster. The pair were disciplined by the club's head coach John Connolly.
"Neither player informed me that they would not be at the session," said Connolly. "They have been disciplined and that is all there is to say."
Charvis said: "Dean Thomas and I missed a session with Swansea on Sunday and it was a lack of communication on my part as to why I wasn't there.
"Although John Connolly had an issue with the two of us, it wasn't a big issue, it wasn't a problem and he's been fine speaking with him today."
Charvis, who led Wales on their tour to South Africa last summer, has been plagued by knee problems all season but his 1999 World Cup colleague, the Newport centre Jason Jones-Hughes, whose defection from his native Australia became a cause célèbre three years ago, will make his first appearance for more than 12 months on Monday.
Jones-Hughes has recovered from knee surgery and will play in the friendly against Worcester at Rodney Parade. "It has been a long road back for Jason," said Newport's team manager Jim McCreedy. "He has worked very hard to get back to fitness and he is long overdue a change in fortune."
Newport are still refusing to release their Wales A back-row Alix Popham to Leeds. He has exercised a clause in his contract which allowed him to give the Welsh club three months' notice. But, even though he is not in the squad for tomorrow's Celtic League match and is also not in the Heineken Cup party, he may have to wait until December before moving.
"We have had a bad run with injuries and we cannot afford to let Alix go at the moment," said McCreedy. "There was no point in registering him for the cup because he will not be with us for the conclusion of the pool stage but he cannot play for Leeds in Europe either."
There is more strife in store for the Welsh Rugby Union with a number of First Division clubs threatening to propose a vote of no confidence in the WRU's general committee.
"We are tired of the WRU making promises to us and later reneging on them," said a spokesman for the unhappy clubs. "A meeting of all the WRU clubs this year backed nine professional teams in the top division but the union is now, without authority, going against that by looking into the feasibility of five super clubs and they need to be warned."
