Cardiff threaten to play banned Rogers

'We will decide tomorrow what further course of action to take. There are a number of options open to us, including the legal one.

'We have no wish to jeopardise what is a wonderful tournament, the best in club rugby, and turn it into a farce but we strongly believe we played within the rules in everything we did. We believe that, after being given permission to sign Peter, we are on very strong ground. Saracens made a mistake over Horan but we made no such mistake.

'When the organisers extended the deadline for signing extra front row players to October 5, our legal argument is that the earlier deadline of September 26 was no longer relevant.

'Our legal people, in full possession of the facts from both sides, are more than confident in our case and that the player has a strong case for restraint of trade.

'If he wants to take such action, we will support him to the hilt. At this stage, playing Peter in Saturday's match is still an option.'

Cardiff chairman Peter Thomas said: 'We are not seeking any confrontation, nor do we wish to get into a legal wrangle. Common sense has to prevail but for us to take this lying down would be unfair to the player.'

The organisers of the tournament, a 12-man directorate drawn from the six competing nations, have summoned London Irish before a disciplinary panel in Dublin today to answer a charge of picking an ineligible player, flanker Richard Bates, in their European Shield home win over Aurillac.

France's Olivier Magne has become the first player to scoff at the Entente Cordiale embraced by Clive Woodward and Bernard Laporte in the shape of combined training sessions between England and France.

'I ask myself "What can we learn from this?? said the Brive flanker. 'We have nothing of which to be envious of England. I think the game-plan put in place by Bernard appears sufficiently coherent. I don't know if we really need the British.'

England, whose national squad is backed by an ever-expanding management team of specialists, are to appoint a full-time doctor from the start of next season. Until then the job will continue to be done on a part-time basis by Terry Crystal, a general practitioner in Leeds.

Andy Nicol, the Scotland captain, is out of the autumn Tests against the United States, Australia and Samoa after suffering a knee injury when he was playing in Monday's development match against Newcastle. The scrum half faces a six-week lay-off.