Bath fined for refusing to release England players
January 29, 2002

Bath have been fined £5,000 by the RFU for refusing to release their players for England's training session last week.

The west country club chose not to allow Mike Catt, Iain Balshaw, Matt Perry, Danny Grewcock, Mark Regan ad Mike Tindall because they thought it would be detrimental to their preparations for last weekend's Heineken Cup quarter-final with Llanelli.

The decision angered England manager Clive Woodward, and the fine, suspended until the end of the season pending any further breach of the new agreement between England and the professional clubs, was imposed after a meeting of the England Rugby Board last Tuesday.

The row between Bath and England is the first test of the new peace accord that was supposed to eliminate conflicts of interest between club and country.

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