GLASGOW HAWKS are considering asking the SRU to explain their position in the 15 months between October 2013, when one of their players was the subject of a serious assault in a city takeaway shop, and January this year when the case finally came to court.

Ryan Wilson, a professional player with Glasgow Warriors and an SRU employee, was fined £500 at Glasgow Sheriff Court after being found guilty of assaulting Hawks centre Ally Maclay. He was also fined £250 for an assault on a second man. Two other Warriors players, Ryan Grant and Rory Hughes, had the charges against them found not proven.

Grant was restored to the Scotland squad, while on Wednesday SRU chief executive Mark Dodson issued a statement that Wilson had been suspended without pay for three months.

Despite this, a source authorised by Hawks president Chas Afuakwah said last night: "If these were players from any amateur club in Scotland they would have them up for bringing the game into disrepute and been banned for 20 matches or a season or whatever.

"They should have done the same thing here instead of looking at it from the viewpoint of the employer of the professional players who were in court. I get that, but they also have this much wider role to protect the reputation of the sport. They can't do both, let's be honest.

"The SRU absolutely had a duty of care to Ally Maclay, as they have to every player who is registered in Scotland, and in my view they did not exercise it. They haven't protected the game, they have acted as an employer."