Harlequins are refusing to release their Fijian centre, Viliame Satala, to face Wales in Cardiff on Saturday but will pay the player's air fare to join the squad in Dublin next week.

Fiji have complained to the International Rugby Board but the regulations support Harlequins. They want Satala for Sunday's Zurich Premiership match at Saracens and were not given the stipulated 14 days' notice for Satala's release.

"The Fijian union did not get in touch with us but expected Vili to turn up to their hotel in Cardiff last Saturday," said Quins' team manager Mike Scott. "Clubs are used to having IRB regulations rammed down their throats but they work both ways. We received a fax on November 4 dated October 28 asking for the player's release and are exercising our right to keep him this weekend. We will put him on a plane to Dublin at our own expense next Monday. Fiji may be upset but the problem is one of their own making."

Fiji's chief executive Pio Bosco Tikoisuva, whose playing career included a spell at Harlequins, attacked his former club.

"Releasing Satala on Monday is no use to us at all," he said. "We did Harlequins a favour by not making the player return to Fiji for trials last month and this is how they repay us."

Swansea have been fined £2,000 by European Rugby Cup Ltd for playing the outside-half Gavin Henson and the flanker Dean Thomas in a Heineken Cup match against Montferrand last month when ineligible. The pair had been sent off in a club game the previous week.

Swansea, who pleaded ignorance of the rules, also had two points deducted but the pun ishment was suspended for the rest of the season.

The Gloucester lock Ed Pearce will face a Rugby Football Union disciplinary panel on Monday after being cited for stamping on the Wasps scrum-half Robert Howley during last month's Premiership match. He risks a suspension of between four and six weeks.