Rogers in the clear over club row

Wallaby Mat Rogers today expressed his relief at being cleared to play against England at Twickenham on Saturday following a disciplinary hearing conducted by conference call between a London hotel and Australian Rugby Union officials in Sydney.

The former rugby league international faced an Australian Rugby Union disciplinary hearing in the early hours of this morning following an incident outside an Edinburgh nightclub two weeks ago.

A Wallabies supporter claimed Rogers had thrown a punch at him, but the allegations were not proved.

With Stirling Mortlock having suffered a depressed cheekbone in last Saturday's 31-17 win over Scotland at Hampden Park, Rogers is expected to start at outside centre against England. The Wallabies are also missing outside-half Stephen Larkham who broke his arm in the same match.

Australian tour manager Phil Thomson took part in a conference call hearing with Union officials in Sydney and said: "Mat Rogers has been dismissed of the charges of bringing the game into disrepute."

The four-man panel broke up after 1am and said it had studied evidence from independent witnesses which did not substantiate allegations made by Tim Oberg, the supporter concerned.

"I'm obviously relieved, I've always denied the claims and the hearing tonight vindicated that," said Rogers. "Obviously I'm very happy with the process, it was very thorough. The decision vindicated what I said all along and that was I wasn't guilty of any of the claims made against me."

Rogers admitted he was involved in an incident with Oberg but the committee found he only pushed the Queensland high school teacher away to avoid further trouble.

Rogers had described the incident as nothing more than "an argument between two blokes".

He would not reveal what it was about.

Thomson said despite the fact Rogers had admitted being involved in an incident at 4am outside a nightclub, the committee had decided he had not brought the game into disrepute.

"I think it's been a very thorough and full investigation by police and ourselves," said ARU general manager Gary Flowers.