Gloucester throw the book at Paul

Former England man receives final warning

Gloucester have handed Henry Paul a final written warning and have fined him three weeks' wages after he missed three successive training sessions earlier this month.

Paul, capped six times by England, was summoned to a disciplinary hearing at Kingsholm on Friday and was found to be "in serious breach of his contract".

Gloucester coach Dean Ryan said the former Wigan and Bradford Bulls RL star still had "an enormous amount of work to do to erase the damage".

Ryan added that the fine was the maximum penalty available to the club.

Paul was punished for failing to attend training on 16, 17 and 18 October.

Paul and scrum-half Peter Richards were dropped for last Saturday's European Challenge Cup trip to Bayonne, which Gloucester won 26-10, after they missed a compulsory training session on October 16.

Richards returned for training the following day and is back in the squad for the this week's game with Romanian side Bucuresti; Paul is still excluded.