Racing Metro 19-17 London Wasps

Wasps face a nervous wait to find out if they will be top seeds in the knock-out stages of the Amlin ­Challenge Cup following a slender defeat at Racing Metro.

The wing Tom Varndell scored a try in either half – as he did in the reverse fixture last week – while Danny Cipriani added seven points to leave Wasps on the verge of victory in Paris. But a last-minute penalty from Racing’s fly-half Jonathan Wisniewski steered the home side to a morale-boosting win.

The cruel defeat means the door is open for Irish province Connacht to finish as the top seed with a win at Olympus Rugby in Madrid on Saturday.

Racing took a third-minute lead through Wisniewski’s penalty but Wasps hit back almost immediately when the in-form Varndell showed blistering pace to shrug off Mani Vakaloa for an opportunistic score. Cipriani converted and then added a penalty in the 12th minute for a healthy 10-3 advantage.

Cipriani then missed two kicks before Wisniewski slotted home a long-range penalty to cut the gap. Then the Racing fly-half showed a touch of class on 28 minutes to fire home a neat drop-goal to reduce the deficit to just one point at the interval.

Dan Ward-Smith went close for the visitors but the No8 was then shown a yellow card in the 55th minute for killing the ball.

Racing took control in the scrum and the Welsh referee James Jones had no other option but to award a penalty-try for the home side.

But Cipriani’s long pass allowed Varndell to touch down for his second in the right corner before Racing claimed an unlikely victory through Wisniewski’s last-gasp penalty.

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• Manchester City striker lashes out on Argentinian radio
• ‘I wondered, what’s the moron talking about me for?’

Carlos Tevez has launched an incredible new attack on Gary Neville, accusing his former Manchester United team-mate of being a “boot-licking moron” after their confrontation during the Carling Cup semi-final first leg on Tuesday night.

The Manchester City striker described his side’s 2-1 victory in the match at Eastlands as “revenge” and said his provocative goal celebration had been directed only at Neville and not Sir Alex Ferguson or the United fans. He said: “Ferguson loves me.”

Before the game Neville, the United right-back, had said Tevez was “not worth” the £25m it would have cost the club to keep him last summer. Tevez made a gesture towards Neville after scoring his first goal, from the penalty spot. The ­England veteran responded by raising his middle finger.

Speaking in a radio interview on ESPN Argentina, Tevez said: “My celebration was directed at Gary Neville. He acted like a complete sock-sucker [boot-licker] when he said I wasn’t worth £25m, just to suck up to the manager. I don’t know what the hell that idiot is talking about me for. I never said anything about him.

“I will never show a lack of respect towards anyone. Just as I was running off to celebrate the penalty I had scored, I came across Gary and I said to myself: ‘Shut your trap, keep quiet.’ I didn’t go overboard in my celebration and it was directed at Gary, not at Ferguson and not at the fans. I think he did the wrong thing because I was his team-mate and I never said anything bad about him. He was ­saying that Ferguson was right when he said that I wasn’t worth £25m, when he was saying this and that … I always respected Neville.”

Tevez’s outburst will do little to dampen tension ahead of next week’s second leg after the Football Association and Greater Manchester Police appealed for calm.Despite living in England for four years, Tevez speaks little English. His comments on Wednesday to the British media, accusing Neville of being “disrespectful”, were released through representatives. In his native tongue, he made his feelings clear. He said: “I was at lunch with the players in the team hotel and all the papers were laid out. I read them – well, ‘read them’, obviously I don’t read [English].

“My team-mates were asking what I thought. And I wondered to myself: what’s the tarado [moron] talking about me for when I never said anything about him, when there was never any [issue] with us. It was a lack of respect for a compañero [fellow ­footballer], aside of the fact that we had won a lot of things together.

“You have to do your talking on the pitch. I don’t talk much in England – mainly because of the language. I don’t like to get involved in conflict. I’m happy because I know what I am. Thank God I had the chance to get revenge with City, although there is still the second leg to come. I know Ferguson loves me, that’s why he always talks about me, ha-ha.There are differences between the two teams. Manchester United is a huge team in the city, everyone knows that. But City are making giant strides.”

The Argentinian said he did not expect to end his career at City. “Things are going well for me; the goals are coming. I’m in good shape, I have avoided ­injuries. As a kid I would never have imagined I would live in ­England for four years. I am very happy and contented that my daughter is growing up in a country as developed as this one. But the truth is that it’s very, very hard for me to live here, so far away from my loved ones. I’m not exactly an example of how to learn English; I just can’t get it into my head. I’m learning hardly ­anything, truth be told. I don’t go out much, I spend most of my time at home. My daughter just brought me a Boca Juniors shirt and she wants me to join Boca. I am a Boca fan and I know I’ll go back one day but I don’t know when.”

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• James Milner praises Aston Villa’s rate of progress
• Midfielder confident league form will not fade again

James Milner followed his man-of-the-match performance in Aston Villa’s exhilarating 6-4 Carling Cup semi-final, second-leg victory over Blackburn Rovers by saying that the development of Martin O’Neill’s team required them to win a first trophy for 14 years.

“The next step for this side is to win a trophy. The owner [Randy Lerner] and the manager have done a great job and the club has changed massively since the last time I was here on loan,” Milner said, referring to the season he spent at Villa Park four years ago.

“Hopefully we are improving year by year and we can show that in the league but also to get a piece of silverware would be great. We know we are going to come up against a quality team whoever it is ­[Manchester City or Manchester United, in the final]. And although it is a great day out for the fans, we’re going there to win.”

Villa last reached a major final a decade ago, when Chelsea beat them in the 2000 FA Cup final. Beyond Brad Friedel’s 2002 Carling Cup winner’s medal and Nigel Reo-Coker’s 2006 FA Cup final appearance for West Ham United in the defeat on penalties by Liverpool, O’Neill’s nominal first-choice side have never experienced a major final. “It is fantastic. I don’t think it has sunk in yet,” Milner said. “It would be my first final and for a few of the boys.”

Milner is confident that Villa’s challenge for a Champions League place will not fade, as it did last season. “It’s about getting that consistency and making sure we put in our best performances,” he said. “It’s down to us to finish the season well. We know what happened last season. We’ve added a lot of strength and quality to the squad.”

Milner will be hoping he has a better League Cup final experience than in 1996 when, as a Leeds United fan, the day ended sourly for him, with his side losing 3-0 and their supporters jeering the then manager Howard Wilkinson at the end. “I was supporting Leeds. I was only 10 [and] remember being disappointed,” he recalled.

His display against Blackburn, in which Villa secured a 7-4 aggregate win, in his new central midfield role confirmed why he is a firm favourite to be selected for Fabio Capello’s England’s squad for the World Cup in South Africa this summer.

He said: “I played there coming through a lot at Leeds in the Under-12s, 13, 14s and enjoyed it very much. When you’re a younger player you see young centre-backs get played at right-back and centre midfielders played wide. It is seems to be the way as there’s not so much responsibility. But wherever the manager plays me, I enjoy it. I’m delighted to be playing in there and I feel I can influence the game a bit more.”

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• British teenager competing in her native city
• Robson enjoying shopping trips with friend Jelena Dokic

The locals here have taken extra pleasure this week in pointing out to anyone of vaguely British extraction that Laura Robson was born in Melbourne and that anything good in her game is a product of Australia. Unfortunately for them, Robson has long since pledged her allegiance to Britain but when she begins her bid for glory in the girls’ singles on Sunday, she will do so as a firm fans’ favourite at ­Melbourne Park.

Her performances at the Hopman Cup in Perth, where she played mixed doubles with Andy Murray, showed off both her ability on the court and how quick she is with a wise-crack. The Australian crowds have been lapping it up, to the extent where one cheeky fan asked Robson to sign a certificate to be an Australian, to no avail. “They said if I wanted my birthday present I had to sign it, so I didn’t,” she said.

Robson turned 16 today and celebrated with a dinner in Melbourne with a guest-list that included Murray and the US Open junior champion Heather Watson, who will join Robson in the juniors here, while rock band Foo Fighters were at a nearby table.

Hordes of local fans have descended on all of Robson’s matches here, including her two singles matches in the qualifying competition and her first-round doubles matchtoday, when the decibel level was raised by some rather boisterous voices. “Wimbledon is more reserved, they get into it, but they’re not chanting, singing songs [like here],” Robson said. “So it was pretty interesting out there.”

In Perth, what captivated the crowds was how Robson handled her on-court interviews and also the way she interacted with Murray, bringing out more than the odd smile in the usually reserved Scot. “In the doubles, the more we played with each other, the more used to it we got, and that really showed in the way we moved around the court,” Robson said. “He’s really lovely, we get on quite well, even though we’re usually mean to each other all the time. He said ‘happy birthday’.”

After playing her second-round doubles match , Robson was due to hit the stores with a rather special personal shopper – Jelena Dokic. The Australian has formed a strong friendship with Robson through the Mouratoglou tennis academy they attended together in France and the former world No4 Dokic is full of ­admiration for the teenager.

“We arrived at the same time at Mouratoglou,” Dokic said. “We didn’t know each other at first and we didn’t talk that much but then we went to do the off-season together and now we’re really, really good friends. She’s a great girl. It’s funny, because she’s 16 and I am 26 – I could nearly be her mother but we get along great. It’s actually her birthday. We’re going shopping so it’s good.”

As Robson makes tentative steps into the seniors, she could do worse than bend Dokic’s ear about how she has coped with being in the media spotlight. At 26, Dokic has been through more things than most people have to endure in a lifetime, including depression, but has come out the other side. Having won the junior title at Wimbledon in 2008, Robson has already attracted plenty of attention, but it is nothing to that poured on Dokic’s every move.

At 16, she beat the top seed Martina Hingis in the first round at Wimbledon and by 19, she was ranked No4 in the world. But as the tennis prospered, her family life disintegrated and she is no longer in contact with her father, Damir. Twelve months ago, Dokic’s run to the quarter-finals of the Australian Open here was a heartwarming and stunning story. Having been off the tour for three years, she revealed that she had been suffering from depression. It has taken an awful lot of help, effort and soul-searching but she has battled back and ended 2009 ranked 56.

On the eve of this year’s Australian Open, one newspaper claimed Dokic had a row with her coach, Tony Roche, during practice. It was another example of the microscope that Dokic finds herself under, her every move scrutinised to the maximum.

“It’s not annoying, but it is hurtful,” she said. “People that read that don’t actually know what goes on and it’s not necessary. Why didn’t they pick 50 other players that the same thing could have happened to? That made the back page. It’s just the way it is. I’ve had it all my life.”

The most incredible thing about Dokic is that despite everything she has had to endure, she still loves tennis. She admits that some days she does feel like quitting, but that the feeling passes. “If I could have a semi-final again at Wimbledon or an Australian Open quarter-final or whatever, I would take all that [trouble]. It would be worth it,” she said.

Her first-round defeat here this week will drop her down the rankings a little but she remains confident that she can get close to where she was at the peak of her career.

“My goal is top 20 this year,” she said. “I think it’s realistic because I finished 50 last year with not even playing for four months. I think if I finish top 20 this year I can do very big things next year and expect a lot from grand slams and big events and maybe go on to the top 10.”

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Qualification is within reach going into the last round of pool fixtures, but who will finish in first place and claim a home tie in the quarter-finals?

There are three types of leaders after five rounds in the six pools of the Heineken Cup. I tried to work numbers one, two and four into that opening sentence but ran out of fingers.

First, there are the those that have ­already qualified: Biarritz and Toulouse. All they have to do now is win their final game and claim a home tie in the quarter-finals. With all due respect to Glasgow, Biarritz should accomplish this and look forward to a shift of venue in the Basque Country, from their little old home-town Parc Aguilera to the Anoeta Stadium in San Sebastián for the first of the knock-out rounds.

Toulouse have to travel to Sale, who could yet, with a bonus-point victory, reach 18 points and sneak through should a whole pile of results elsewhere go their way. Whether Sale can pick themselves up in Stockport after being strangely muted in Cardiff last week isn’t probably known even to themselves at the moment. A lot will depend on the intensity of the Toulouse challenge.

Then, from the remaining four, there is the single leader to enjoy a home tie in the final round. It’s not any old tie, however, even if a clincher at Thomond Park does hand a significant advantage to Munster. Well-versed as they are in last-round showdowns against English opponents, in this case Northampton, Munster are not quite what they were and Northampton are a rising force. There’s no need to question whether Friday night in Limerick is going to be intense. White-hot on the Shannon.

That leaves three leaders who must travel, with everything hingeing on their performance on the road. Leicester, for example, have to go to the Liberty Stadium in Swansea. This should be a game that makes Munster-Northampton look like sitting by a rod on the side of a canal, but it all depends on whether the Ospreys can sustain an 80-minute performance against the masters of patience and cruelty.

Clermont Auvergne, at the moment one point behind Leicester but the most impressive team in the tournament in the hardest of pools, have a relatively easy game away in Viadana. One thing is almost certain, that Clermont will take five points to finish on a total of 21. It’s almost as certain that neither Leicester or the Ospreys will take a four-try bonus point. But who will win in Swansea?

Stade Français go to Edinburgh. The bans slapped on first Julien Dupuy and then David Attoub suggest that Stade, with Paris condemned as the eye-gouging capital of the game, have to find a state of mind somewhere between outrage and bemusement, one that allows them to play.

The danger is that they’ll either be so wobbly that they’ll jab a digit in every eye they see, or so sheepish that they’ll give the game away. There’s a touch of irony about eye-gougers mounting a protest against justice that is one-eyed.

Let’s just say Stade are so traumatised that they flop, as they did when at Ravenhill when they were very much claws out. That would open a door for the team that beat them resoundingly in round three, Ulster. For the upset to be complete, ­Ulster would have to claim a four-try win at Bath.

Finally, there’s Leinster at London Irish, or rather Twickenham. London Irish started the Heineken Cup with one of the most important wins in their history, an away victory over the defending champions, but have suffered twice at the hands of the Scarlets.

Leinster’s response to that first-round blip was to rebuild impressively. If ­anything they look stronger than ever, hardened by the chastening experience of losing. And it’s not clear if there’s any advantage for the Exiled Irish to be playing the Irish at the home of the English game.

For what it’s worth, I’m going for wins for Munster, Biarritz, Toulouse, Clermont Auvergne, the Ospreys, Edinburgh over Stade Français, Ulster over Bath, and Leinster. Northampton will gain a losing ­bonus point to qualify on 19 points as a best runner-up. The Ospreys will qualify on 20 points as a runner-up behind Clermont.

And Ulster will not take a bonus point at Bath, meaning that Stade go through as a group winner, courtesy of the results between Stade and Ulster in rounds three and four (both scored three tries, but Stade had a better aggregate points difference, the tally being 42-39 in their favour).

This is an extract from The Breakdown, Eddie Butler’s weekly email on the world of rugby union. To subscribe click here

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• England goalkeeper could be on his way to Britannia Stadium
• Udinese take Muntari case to Court of Arbitration for Sport

David James’s loan move to Stoke City from Portsmouth may be back on. The clubs have renewed talks over a deal which collapsed last week due to a dispute over pay.

The removal of the goalkeeper from the wage bill and the likely sale of the defender Mike Williamson, who was tonight discussing personal terms with Newcastle after the clubs agreed a fee, would be welcome at the financially-troubled club. Williamson, bought from Watford for about £2m less than five months ago, has not played for Portsmouth.

However, there was also a setback yesterday when Portsmouth confirmed that Udinese are taking them to the Court of Arbitration for Sport over a missing payment from Sulley Muntari’s £7m transfer in summer 2007.

Stoke had proposed to pay half of James’s £50,000-a-week wage until May but Portsmouth wanted all of the England goalkeeper’s salary to be provided until June, when his one-year-deal ends. It is believed Portsmouth have informed Stoke that they now expect James’s full salary to be paid when he is fit but will accept half if he is injured. They will also pay the 39-year-old after the season ends, until his contract expires.

James’s only priority is regular first-team football in the lead-up to the World Cup, given the need to ­convince the England manager, Fabio Capello, of his form and fitness. James has not played since a 1-1 draw at Sunderland on 12 December.

Udinese’s confirmation that they will seek redress for the missing installment – reported to be around £700,000 – from Muntari’s transfer is a blow to ­Portsmouth’s hopes of lifting the transfer embargo imposed by the Premier League. The League has said Portsmouth must present legal paperwork declaring that Udinese had agreed to reschedule the missing ­payment. This appears unlikely given the Italian club’s decision over the player, who moved to Internazionale for about £12m in 2008. A Udinese statement read: “Udinese today has reported Portsmouth to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne in connection with a missed payment for Sulley Muntari.”

The club’s manager, Avram Grant, has praised the spirit of his squad. Four players – Nwankwo Kanu, Nadir Belhadj, Hassan Yebda and Aruna Dindane – are involved in the Africa Cup of Nations in Angola. On Saturday Portsmouth play Sunderland in the FA Cup but Grant’s priority is to avoid relegation.

“We will do everything to stay in this league and I believe we can do it,” Grant said. Portsmouth are bottom, five points from safety. “I’m very happy to see the character of the players. Teams with players missing and injured could give up. But we haven’t. In the second half and in extra-time at Coventry [in the FA Cup] we showed a lot of spirit and ­character. We pushed, pushed and pushed. In extra-time we could have scored six or seven goals. The Sunderland game will be tough for us. After their heavy defeat at Chelsea [7-2] I’m sure they will want to show that was not a normal game for them.”

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• Up-and-coming rider describes new job as dream come true
• Nicky Henderson upbeat about Saturday’s feature race

William Buick is a best price of 25-1 to be champion jockey this year after being signed up to ride for John ­Gosden. “It’s a dream come true,” said Buick, who is spending the winter in Dubai and rode a hat-trick of winners there on one day earlier this month.

“[Gosden] has some great horses and I can’t wait to get started. It is the ­opportunity of a lifetime and it is up to me to take that opportunity and make the most of it.”

At 10-1, William Hill appears ­determined to take no more bets on Buick to be ­champion this year, as the firm already has a liability of £13,200 from a £200 bet struck three years ago that the jockey, now 21, would wear the crown by 2016. Another firm laid 500-1 to £10 that Buick would be champion by 2020, a bet struck before the jockey had ridden in public by Ian Balding, father of Andrew, who was Buick’s first employer.

Nicky Henderson is upbeat about the chances of his Petit Robin, one of seven horses who will take on Twist Magic in Saturday’s Victor Chandler Chase at Ascot. “He was good at Kempton and this seems the natural place to go,” said the Lambourn trainer.

But Henderson is “not sure” if Petit Robin will then be aimed at the ­Cheltenham Festival, where he would either have to face Master Minded, who beat him easily in last year’s Champion Chase, or step up in distance for the Ryanair Chase. “I might do the sensible thing and wait for the 2½- miler at Aintree. We’ll have to see what happens this weekend.”

Henderson will send Punjabi to contest the Champion Hurdle Trial at Haydock, but heavy going there has dissuaded him from running the highly regarded Punchestowns. He still hopes to get two runs into the RSA Chase favourite before Cheltenham in March.

Fergal Lynch, fined £50,000 last ­summer after admitting he had stopped a horse, has been ordered to pay by next Friday, failing which he will, in effect, be banned from the sport. Lynch was ­supposed to pay by Christmas Eve but applied for extra time, a request denied yesterday by the British Horseracing Authority.

On the face of it, Lynch should be able to pay the fine from his share of the $2.4m prize money he won while riding at ­Philadelphia Park in the first half of last year. He was subsequently banned there and has agreed not to ride in races until he can recover his licence in Britain.

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• Referee saw challenge as two players coming together
• No retrospective action can be taken by FA

William Gallas will face no disciplinary action for his challenge on Mark Davies on Wednesday night, which was likened to “assault” by the Bolton Wanderers manager, Owen Coyle.

Gallas, the Arsenal defender, lunged in clumsily on the midfielder who was left crumpled in agony and was carried off on a stretcher. Bolton initially feared that he had suffered major damage to an ankle, although the 21-year-old appears to have escaped serious injury.

The referee, Alan Wiley, did not award a free-kick and Coyle confronted him at ­full-time to ask why. The manager reported that “it’s fair to say that what he [Wiley] said was that he never saw it”.

That would have left Gallas open to retrospective action from the Football Association but it has emerged that Wiley informed the governing body he did view the incident and merely saw two players coming together, having stretched for the ball. As such, the FA has no scope to ­investigate further.

Davies left the Emirates Stadium on crutches and the early diagnosis suggested he had seriously damaged his ankle ligaments in the incident, which came as Arsenal pushed forward to equalise at 2-2 in a game they went on to win 4-2. But it now seems he might have got away with bruising. “It was a disgusting tackle,” Paul Robinson, the Bolton defender, said. “He’s lucky he hasn’t broken his leg.”

Attention for both teams will now turn to the FA Cup fourth round – Bolton entertain Sheffield United on Saturday and Arsenal travel to Stoke City on Sunday. Arsène Wenger, the Arsenal manager, will rest some of his first-team players before a potentially season-defining run of ­Premier League fixtures. His team face Aston Villa, Manchester United, Chelsea and Liverpool in the space of 14 days.

Wenger reported that the midfielder Abou Diaby was out of both the Stoke and Villa games, and was a doubt for United on Sunday week, because of a calf injury. “There is hope he might be back for United but we don’t know yet,” Wenger said. “We will know more when he has a scan.” Bacary Sagna, the right-back, has a ­shoulder problem and he will be among those rested at Stoke and Sol Campbell has strained his neck in training and may be unavailable to make the first appearance of his second spell at Arsenal.

There was more bad news for Kieran Gibbs, who, having fractured his metatarsal against Standard Liège on 24 November, is now out for the season. The Arsenal left-back needs surgery because the bone has failed to heal satisfactorily.

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• Expulsion for use of suspended player overturned
• Stenhousemuir will host replay, winner to host Celtic

Dunfermline breathed a sigh of relief after their appeal for reinstatement into the Scottish Cup was upheld today at Hampden. The club have been ordered to replay their fourth-round tie against Stenhousemuir at their opponents’ Ochilview Park home and fined around £30,000.

The Pars’ expulsion came partly as the result of fielding Calum Woods, who came off the bench in the second half of the 7-1 win at East End Park on 9 January, despite the Scottish Football Association’s official suspensions list declaring him banned for the match.

The club were also punished for further administrative errors, including submitting an inaccurate team line-up, altering a named substitute and not registering two outfield under-21 players.

A three-person independent panel, consisting of the Hamilton secretary, Scott Struthers, Gordon Law, a former president of the Scottish Junior Football Association, and the solicitor Stephen Miller, met at Hampden today to hear their case.

After more than five hours of deliberation, including an afternoon adjournment, they ruled that the decision be overturned. Although Dunfermline will be fined around £30,000 in total, £20,000 of which was for playing Woods, the club have the chance to make up the deficit if they beat Stenhousemuir for the second time.

The winners host Celtic in the fifth round in a game which the Pars chief ­executive John Yorkston was quoted as saying could be worth as much as £250,000.

There was no disguising the relief in the voice of Dunfermline director of football, Jim Leishman, who said: “We got a fair hearing and we are delighted to still be in the cup. We can still only apologise to the Dunfermline fans that we are in this situation but we are delighted that we are still in the cup.

“Last week we thought we were out of the cup but we got the chance to present our case and we are delighted to have the opportunity to go forward. We will be making an official statement but we are delighted.”

On the £30,000 fine, he said: “That’s something that comes with the judgment. I can’t say too much on that but we are looking forward to the game. Stenhousemuir have been magnificent in this. They haven’t said anything against it, they went with the judgment.”

Gordon Smith, chief executive of the Scottish FA, said in a statement: “We are surprised by the decision after what the emergency committee considered a number of serious infringements of the cup competition rules by Dunfermline Athletic.

“Nonetheless, we respect the decision of the appeals board and hope that the situation involving Dunfermline Athletic, and the sanctions imposed on them tonight, will ensure all participating clubs are mindful of the cup competition rules in the future.”

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• Director of rugby wants ‘real reason’ for No9’s omission
• Jones says ‘I want him to stay with Sale’

Sale’s director of rugby, Kingsley Jones, has criticised the Wales coach, Warren Gatland, for leaving Dwayne Peel out of his Six Nations squad. The scrum-half is recovering from a groin strain but is expected to be fit in time for the start of the tournament. Gatland said Peel’s fitness would be monitored and did not rule out adding him to the squad next month.

Peel is out of contract at Edgeley Park at the end of the season and Gatland, who has a policy of favouring home-based players, wants the 28-year-old to return to Wales.

“Dwayne is a very popular player in Wales with the supporters and the media,” said Jones, who is a former Wales captain. “I think, in terms of Welsh rugby, that he is bigger than Cristiano Ronaldo is in Manchester, but there is this thing around him all the time.

“Wales have left him out because he was injured, but Stephen Jones and Matthew Rees were named in the squad even though they had not played for weeks. You can read into that what you want. Let’s have the real reason why they do not pick Dwayne Peel.”

Peel was left out of the 2009 Six Nations squad and he has been third-choice at times in Gatland’s reign, behind the Ospreys’ Mike Phillips, who is also injured at the moment, and Gareth Cooper of the Cardiff Blues.

“If Wales do not think Dwayne is good enough that is their prerogative, but they should come out and say it,” said Jones.

“I’m constantly having to firefight the Welsh media over Dwayne’s future and it has become too much. He’s a fantastic lad and our relationship is superb but three months after he arrived here I read reports that he was leaving because he wasn’t in a Wales squad and that was when he had 18 months left on his contract. It’s crazy.

“He has a number of options but I want him to stay with Sale. I will meet his agent and take it from there.”

Jones and Rees are due to return from injury for the Scarlets at Brive on Saturday. The match will be their last before Wales’s Six Nations opener, against England at Twickenham on 6 February.

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