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Former All Blacks halfback Justin Marshall has been suspended by his French club Montpellier for allegedly refusing to take the field off the reserve bench.
The incident happened last weekend, late in the game at Toulouse where eighth-placed Montpellier lost 34-0 to the league leaders.
Club general manager Denis Navizet told AFP a decision about Marshall's future would be made in the next few days. He was left out of the side to play Clermont this weekend.
Adding insult to injury for Marshall is that Toulouse's halfback is his long-time All Blacks rival for the No 9 jersey, Byron Kelleher. Marshall, 35, has played for Montpellier since July, when he surprisingly left Welsh club the Ospreys mid-contract.
He joined the Ospreys in April 2006 from Leeds Tykes, after they were relegated from the Guinness Premiership.
Marshall won 77 caps for the All Blacks during his international career and helped the Crusaders win the Super 12 championship four times.
Meanwhile, in other news from Welsh rugby, players will be released for the Six Nations in 'full compliance' with International Rugby Board regulations, ending a potentially damaging contretemps that could have disrupted Wales' test programme and even the Six Nations.
The four professional regional teams - Cardiff Blues, Newport Gwent-Dragons, the Swansea-based Ospreys and the Llanelli-based Scarlets - formally ended the scrap over player access that disfigured, and threatened to disrupt, the national side's autumn test programme.
David Moffett, former NZRU CEO and a former CEO of the Welsh Rugby Union (who left the governing body after driving the regionalisation process and now bats for the other side by representing the quartet's umbrella organisation), confirmed that players would be released for the Six Nations.
"I'm sure nobody would want to see a repeat performance of the WRU taking its own regions to court," Moffett said, referring to the union's pursuit of an interim injunction against the four teams ahead of the November programme. "This is why, to cancel out the prospect of any recurrence, the regions are making it crystal clear that they will fully comply with the rules drawn up by the IRB."
Two months ago, the IRB updated their regulations governing player release for test duty, long a cause of tension between national unions and the club game. The board settled on an eight-day arrangement, under which players would be made available to their countries for five clear days before the start of each international window, as well as Monday to Wednesday the previous week.
This did not satisfy the Scotland coach Frank Hadden, who has long felt disadvantaged by his problems in clawing back players from the English Premiership, but he is not holding his breath for a better deal.
Moffett, well aware that Welsh rugby is going through the same political stresses and strains that affected the game in England until last year's agreement between Twickenham and the Premiership clubs, said he hoped to make further progress in his discussions with the WRU over the coming months. "
"There is a long way to go, but at least we're talking," he said. "We are very clear on the role of regional rugby in continuing to ensure the success of the national team. The stronger the regions are, the stronger the national game is."
