Welsh appeal set for Thursday

London Welsh will have their appeal against a five-point deduction for fielding an ineligible player heard in London on Thursday.

The Aviva Premiership club were hit with the points deduction and a £15,000 fine after it emerged New Zealand-born scrum-half Tyson Keats had played in 10 matches without being registered correctly.

Mike Scott, the former London Welsh team manager, has been banned for life from rugby after he admitted supplying false information, including a forged passport, to the Rugby Football Union.

Keats was eligible for an ancestry visa, due to his grandfather being born in England, but Scott made a mistake in the original application.

Instead of re-applying, Scott told Keats' agent and the club that the visa had been successfully granted to the player.

Meanwhile, Scott submitted false documents to the RFU in a bid to pass Keats off as English-qualified.

London Welsh, who also received a further points deduction suspended until the end of next season, argued they should not be blamed for fraudulent behaviour conducted by Scott, who was described in the original judgement as a "rogue employee".

The points deduction saw London Welsh demoted to the bottom of the Premiership, two points adrift of Sale Sharks with five matches remaining.

However, the same judgement also criticised London Welsh for not having a professional-enough management structure in place, with no safeguards to prevent an employee from acting alone as Scott did.

The appeal will be heard at 4pm on Thursday by an independent panel of Gareth Rees QC, Jim Sturman QC and Philip Evans.

Scott accepted a police caution on February 14 for his actions in falsifying registration documents.