The Wasps and England wing Tom Voyce will be out until April after undergoing an operation to repair knee ligaments. The 26-year-old was injured during the win over Bath last Saturday and his absence will be a blow for the Heineken Cup holders, especially during the Six Nations campaign when they face being without up to 11 players for key league games.
It is the first major injury suffered by Voyce, who is in his fifth season with Wasps and has made 146 appearances. The England captain, Phil Vickery, also limped out of the Bath match with the recurrence of a calf strain. He misses today's Premiership match against Leeds but is expected to return to full training on Monday.
Reports in Scotland yesterday claimed that that the country's only professional referee, Malcolm Changleng, was considering giving up his full-time status. The 37-year-old former teacher is due to discuss his future next week with the Scottish Rugby Union a month after Perpignan made an official complaint about him.
The club's president, Paul Goze, sent a dossier to European Rugby Cup complaining about Changleng's handling of their Heineken Cup group match against London Irish in Reading. The French side had three players sent to the sin-bin and they were deeply unhappy with a penalty try that was awarded against them. The Perpignan director of rugby, Jacques Brunel, said after the 24-16 defeat: "The referee had a scandalous way with him."
Changleng, who was given Heineken Cup matches this season after the Frenchman Joel Jutge was injured, has not been named among officials for the final two group rounds of either the main tournament or the Challenge Cup this month.
Former Wales internationals have criticised the Welsh Rugby Union for not appointing someone with a strong rugby background as its first elite performance director after the job was given to Graeme Maw, who has arrived from athletics. Wales face England at Twickenham in their Six Nations opener next month, a ground where they have not tasted victory for 20 years, and the wing who scored two tries that day in 1988, Adrian Hadley, believes an opportunity has been wasted.
"The post was described as the most important one the WRU had to fill and it surely demanded a rugby man rather than a sports scientist," said Hadley. "It is not fitness that has been letting us down in games: it's being able to know when to pass, when to kick, when to play field position and how to close games out. There is no point in our players being able to bench-press 200 kilograms and run a mile in a couple of minutes if they cannot catch, pass or tackle. It is a fudged appointment."
John Devereux, Hadley's triple crown-winning colleague in 1988, said: "Too many players at the top level are lacking in the basics. Players are shuffling across the field rather than running angles and the passing skills need to be a lot better, all the more so because they are training twice a day and working with a variety of coaches."
Meanwhile the Gloucester wing Lesley Vainikolo missed last night's Premiership match at Bath after returning home to New Zealand. He went back in November following the death of his brother and he flew out this week to deal with what the club described as a serious family problem.
John Fletcher, the Newcastle rugby director, believes his side could face their "most physical encounter of the season" when Worcester arrive at Kingston Park tomorrow. Worcester are the only Premiership side without a league win this term but a draw and four bonus points mean the Warriors head north in 11th, above Leeds.
Fletcher said: "I have watched all of Worcester's games over the past month and they've improved every week. They are still after their first win but nobody has really put them away yet and they have a very strong side at their disposal. I expect it to be an extremely tough game, possibly our most physical encounter of the season."
