Bath adopt risky strategy with appeal for Grewcock

Bath officials have lodged a high-risk appeal against the five-week suspension meted out to their captain, Danny Grewcock, who was convicted by a Rugby Football Union disciplinary panel on Tuesday night of kicking Kyran Bracken, the Saracens scrum-half, during a Premiership match at Vicarage Road 12 days ago.

Grewcock is now free to play at Northampton tomorrow, but his immediate international future will be seriously affected if, after the next hearing, the sentence is either confirmed or increased.

The RFU panel, chaired by the former Rosslyn Park scrum-half Richard Moon, took some three hours to decide that Grewcock had been guilty of reckless use of the boot. However, it accepted that the England lock had not acted with intent, and this apparent incongruity persuaded Bath to chance their arm – or, rather, Grewcock's – with an appeal against both verdict and sentence.

As things stood before last night's developments, Grewcock would have missed three difficult Premiership matches and a rather less testing outing in the Parker Pen Challenge before returning in time for England's opening autumn international against New Zealand at Twickenham on 9 November. That date will now come too early for him, unless he is acquitted.

Jack Rowell and the rest of the Bath hierarchy feel they have right on their side, however, and may attempt to persuade Bracken, who had publicly described the incident as "accidental", to make a personal appearance on behalf of his former Saracens colleague and one-time flat-mate. It is not yet clear whether the West Countrymen will play Grewcock at Franklin's Gardens tomorrow afternoon.

One world-class talent whose participation is not in doubt is Sale's Jason Robinson, who returns to his beloved Headingley tonight for the first time since quitting rugby league and hitching himself to the more lucrative union wagon. It is ironic in the extreme that his home-town club, Leeds, will be on the receiving end of whatever brilliance he conjures up for the occasion.

Leeds are having a ball at the moment, having won their first three Premiership matches. However, Robinson and company are the northerners considered most likely to take something tangible from the campaign, and they will be at full strength if their captain, Bryan Redpath, recovers from rib trouble. Their hosts are without one of their first-choice flankers, the suspended Dan Hyde, and have doubts over both senior props, Mike Shelley and Gavin Kerr.