London Welsh in the dock

LONDON Welsh’s Aviva Premiership fate this season could effectively be decided at a disciplinary hearing next Tuesday.

The top-flight newcomers are currently engaged in a relegation scrap with Sale Sharks and London Irish and have only six games left.

London Welsh will now face a Rugby Football Union competitions hearing after being charged with fielding an ineligible player, scrum-half Tyson Keats, in “a number” of Premiership games this season. It is understood that the issue relates to nine of the 13 Premiership games in which Keats has featured this season.

The RFU also said London Welsh’s former rugby manager Mike Scott is the subject of a separate RFU disciplinary hearing relating to the registration of the same player, a case which will be heard at a later date.