The Scottish Rugby Football Union will press ahead with their own proposals for a 22team British and Irish League (including two Irish provinces) regardless of unofficial discussions between England and Wales along similar lines, and to that end have called a meeting of the four home unions to take place tomorrow.

As things stand, the Murrayfield initiative seems likely to overtake or draw level with similar proposals from the English RFU and EFDR, the umbrella group for the disaffected English Premiership clubs.

In contrast to the English initiative, the IRFU has been asked to attend tomorrow's get-together and will do so, although neither the Scottish nor the Irish unions would yesterday confirm this latest development toward devising an alternative representative structure and with it an overdue fixture list for the 1998-99 season.

As for the alternative brainchild of recently installed RFU president Brn Baister, a 20-team British League without any Irish participation (although not ruling it out), Irish and Scottish officials remained completely in the dark yesterday.

Contrary to a report in an English Sunday newspaper, spokespersons from both Murrayfield and Lansdowne Road confirmed that "no proposed meeting between the four unions to discuss this or any other matter took place today, nor was one planned."

The Scottish RFU press officer, Derek Douglas, confirmed that last Thursday their Union's General Committee unanimously backed a proposal from one of their own working committees for a 22-team British and Irish League, comprising the 14 English Premiership clubs, four from Wales, the two Scottish super districts, and two Irish provinces.

According to Douglas "some progress has been made" in telephone conversations yesterday toward getting "a British and Irish League up and running as soon as possible."

An IRFU spokesperson admitted that these latest initiatives in the turbulent and ever-changing European rugby structure "have taken us by surprise" although he admitted: "We are quizzical and curious as to what this is all about."

The recently installed IRFU President Noel Murphy is also keen to support the Dublin-based organisers of the European Cup, ERC Ltd, of whom Tom Kiernan is chairman. However, both the Murrayfield and English initiatives would envisage the putative new league running in conjunction with the European Cup, the draw for which is expected to announced on Thursday.

A British and Irish league, in which only two Irish teams would be invited to compete, would raise all sorts of logistical difficulties for the IRFU, particularly which teams would play, whether they would be super districts and also where the home games would be played. The putative new competition would feature two 10 or 11 club conferences, teams playing each other home and away, culminating in end of season play-offs to produce an overall champion.

"All the interested parties will be looking at the matter in considerable detail over the next 48-72 hours to see if forming a league is a real possibility," said Five Nations committee chairman Allan Hosie.

Meanwhile, the Leinster Director of Rugby, Mike Ruddock, has been installed as the new coach to the Irish A team in place of Davey Haslett and Ray Coughlan. Donal Lenihan and Philip Danaher have been appointed alongside Gatland.

Three of Leinster's international walking wounded from the arduous summer tour in South Africa, Denis Hickie (fractured jaw), Ciaran Clarke (achilles tendon) and Reggie Corrigan (back), will all be sidelined for the first few weeks of the holders' Guinness Interprovincial campaign.