No one likes the term "Superclub", but English rugby can expect to wake up this weekend and discover one lurking in the suburbs of south-west London. Barring last-minute snags, London Irish and London Scottish, plus the remnants of Richmond, are to merge and add an unprecedented postscript to the messiest of domestic seasons.

Irish officials are saying little in public, but a threesome is looking the preferred option for almost all concerned. Richmond, now down to a handful of employees, have until tomorrow evening to pull a financial rabbit out of the hat to avoid being closed down by English First Division Rugby (EFDR).

If they prevail, those EFDR hawks committed to reducing the Premiership One from 14 clubs to 12 are hopeful Irish can help to kill two birds with one stone.

The only proviso is that any deal is done by midnight on Saturday. EFDR has a board meeting early next week at which it intends to agree next season's fixtures and it has ruled out any repeat of the situation last August when clubs were still waiting to discover their opponents shortly before the domestic season kicked off.

"The phone lines are buzzing," a London Irish source confirmed, adding that lawyers were attending to the nuts and bolts of a merger. One sticking point remains Bristol's no-longer-needed stake in Scottish. But potentially greater benefits exist for Irish investors if they can remove a big chunk of the competition. Geoff Read, the London Irish chairman, was unavailable for comment yesterday.

Irish face a crucial month whether the deal goes ahead or not. They are about to launch a second rights issue aimed at raising Stg£2.5 million and are awaiting the outcome of a new planning application to Spelthorne Council for the redevelopment of their Sunbury headquarters. The club will continue to use it as their training base, but plans have been lodged to build a leisure centre and 16 homes on the remainder of the site.