Sarries will take safety on board

Beal, scheduled to make his first-team return on Boxing Day, expressed fears a few days before Williams' mishap on ground safety. 'This is not a problem at Watford but at some other football grounds where Premiership rugby is played, concrete barriers are not that far from the pitch,' he said. 'To be honest, I'm a little bit worried that something serious might happen.

'At some places the distance between the edge of the pitch and a concrete object is not very far. There are grounds where if you come off the pitch at the wrong place and at high speed, you inevitably run into something.

'In rugby, with players running full-tilt along the touchline, there must be enough space to allow for the contact. There needs to be a safety zone in the area between the touchline and the crowd. It's important that there is sufficient padding over immovable objects, like a concrete wall. You will always get the freak set of circumstances where you end up flying off the edge of the pitch and you just hope nobody is in the way. If it happens in the field of play, as my injury did, you can't do anything about it.'

Harlequins had no complaints yesterday over the circumstances of Williams' injury.

'I have seen enough rugby at Vicarage Road to know that the hoardings are a reasonable distance away from the pitch,' said Quins' team manager and former Saracen, Mike Scott. 'This is the first time anything like this has happened there.'

Williams had returned to regular first-team rugby only this season after taking 12 months to recover from his first ankle dislocation in May last year.

'The surgeon has told me Jamie will play again after three or four months,' said Scott. 'It is a huge psychological blow but we will give him all the support he needs.'

Ioan Bebb, the Cross Keys full back forced into premature retirement at 30 after suffering a detached retina, revealed yesterday that the Welsh Rugby Union, via team manager David Pickering, had attempted to talk him out of the action which police brought after he had been punched during a Welsh-Scottish League match against Bridgend in August.

Bridgend lock Chris Stephens was ordered to do 200 hours community service and pay Bebb £2,000 compensation for a punch which has left his victim with only 75 per cent vision in one eye.

During the weeks after the high-profile incident, Bebb said he received only one call from the WRU.

'They did contact me once, simply to try to persuade me to come to an agreement with Bridgend Rugby Club,' he said. 'I made it quite clear to him (Pickering) that legal proceedings had started and that everything was in the hands of the police.

'The decision was forced upon me because the governing body was reluctant to take any action. Some in my position might have thought: "David Pickering has contacted me, so I'd better keep my mouth shut."

'As a PE teacher, I preach to the children that violence is unacceptable. It would have been hypocrisy on my part to accept compensation to keep my mouth shut.'

Stephens, a second row forward who has been capped for Wales, added: 'I cannot condone what took place but it happened in the heat of the moment.''

Wasps will claim compensation from the RFU for injuries which Phil Greening suffered on England duty which could force him to miss the opening Six Nations match against Wales on February 3. The London club will find out today whether the player needs more than exploratory knee surgery.