Twickenham moved yesterday with an alacrity it failed to show in last season's Martin Johnson affair when it announced that Danny Grewcock's appeal against his five-week ban will be heard next Thursday.
The Rugby Football Union announced the date only 15 hours after Bath appealed against the suspension handed out this week by a disciplinary panel. The Bath and England second-row was suspended for reckless use of the boot against Kyran Bracken at Vicarage Road on September 8.
If the sentence is upheld at the hearing in London, Grewcock will still be available to play for England against New Zealand at Twickenham on November 9.
When Johnson, the Leicester and England captain, appealed last season against a three-week suspension for punching the Saracens hooker Robbie Russell, the delay in arranging the hearing was enough to ensure that he was available to play against France in Paris.
Grewcock's appeal means he is free to captain Bath at Northampton tomorrow and spares the club the problem of having to play a forward out of position in the second row, his fellow England international Steve Borthwick being unavailable through injury.
Bath deny that their appeal is frivolous or designed to buy time. The three-man disciplinary panel has the power to increase the ban, though that would affect England rather than Bath, because internationals against South Africa and Australia follow the All Blacks.
Bath's west country rivals and Premiership leaders Gloucester suffered a blow when their French international prop Patrice Collazo joined Toulouse for an undisclosed fee. He signed a three-year contract just before the Heineken Cup deadline.
Toulouse have been in the market for a prop since losing Christian Califano and Franck Tournaire in the summer to Saracens and Leicester respectively.
Collazo had agreed a new deal with Gloucester at the end of last season. The club's chief executive Ken Nottage was not available for comment but Collazo's move came after a week in which Gloucester announced they were seeking to transfer five fringe players, a category into which the prop hardly came.
The Frenchman's departure raises fears that the financial problems suffered by the club's owner Tom Walkinshaw in the motor racing world this year are starting to impact on rugby. Collazo's move was as swift as it was unexpected. On Thursday he was named in Gloucester's side to face Bristol at Kingsholm today and he is not leaving with the blessing of the club's rugby director Nigel Melville.
Leeds hope to replace Japie Mulder, the centre they released from his contract this week because of a neck injury, with his fellow South African international Andre Snyman.
Leeds are in talks with Snyman's agent. The 28-year-old centre, who has won 34 caps, did not figure in the Tri-Nations campaign in the summer. His last international was against Wales in June.
