WITH barely three weeks of this season remaining, English rugby's leading clubs yesterday commenced divorce proceedings from the Rugby Football Union (RFU).
Irreconcilable differences over the administration and financing of the new professional game have caused them to announce their withdrawal from next season's RFU league and cup competitions to play in their own.
In desperation, the clubs - the 20 in the first and second divisions who constitute English Professional Rugby Union Clubs (EPRUC) - have thrown themselves on the good offices of the RFU president, Bill Bishop, as the only mediator now capable of effecting a mutually acceptable resolution.
The clubs want to run autonomously and receive directly the income generated by their competitions, which have a significantly different format from those announced by the RFU on Tuesday.
As things stand, the clubs and the union each say they are the only ones to have compromised during three months of increasingly fraught discussions.
"Even at this late hour we believe that a compromise solution must be reached with the RFU, otherwise there will be a split in the sport for which the RFU will be held responsible," Donald Kerr of Harlequins, the EPRUC chairman, said in concluding a lengthy statement.
"We are therefore appealing to the president to step in and use his authority to find a way forward before there is an irrevocable break between the clubs and union."
Accordingly, Kerr yesterday wrote to Bishop to this end. "I have had conversations with Bill Bishop and I am hopeful that he will progress matters as we hope," Kerr added.
A clubs' plan is already in place for a two tier European competition, a domestic league to be known as the English Conference and an Anglo Welsh competitions' comprising 24 clubs. In straight contradiction of the RFU EPRUC says it has broadcasters and sponsors ready to step on with the £1 million they each require to fund next season.
Meanwhile, the clubs also formally expressed both their anger at, and their inability to deal with, Cliff Brittle, the chairman of the RFU executive, and have grown so hostile to him that any reconciliation will remain virtually impossible as long as he heads the union's negotiating team.
Yet as recently as Tuesday, Brittle, who was elected by the RFU grassroots in January in the face of the executives' unanimous opposition, absolutely refused to step aside and repeatedly insisted he had the RFU negotiators' full support.
Crucially, the clubs say they have the support of the leading players, but we can now expect an auction with the union for their services, since those who opt out of the Courage Championship could hardly be expected to be considered favourably for England.
Brittle's mandate comes from the mass of small clubs who voted for him against the RFU committee's own nominee three months ago. This explains why the RFU has become so adamant in its refusal to cede the slightest authority. Brittle is clearly charged with preventing a few clubs from hijacking the union.
The kernel of the problem has become apparent: EPRUC believes the RFU to be neither able nor willing to generate funds needed to pay for the professionalism the RFU representatives accepted last August.
