Rugby Union: RFU says peace and goodwill to all clubs

IT IS THAT time of year so it is not surprising that the Rugby Football Union was pursuing the principle of peace and goodwill to all clubs yesterday. It came in the shape of what one Twickenham insider described as "a fat olive branch".

Yesterday's five-hour meeting of the RFU management board agreed to saddle Rob Andrew's Club England Task Group with the job of keeping the club owners sweet while attempting to get the sort of competitive club structure the union really wants.

To that end, both Andrew's working party report on a restructured season and the Gloucester owner Tom Walkinshaw's plan for an pounds 85m British League will be the subject of much scrutiny before the former England fly-half presents the Task Group's conclusions to the next management board meeting, on 26 January.

The RFU felt more time was needed to study the implications of Dr Tony O'Reilly's proposal for a "Lion Bond" to raise money - estimates run from pounds 250m to pounds 600m - to help the Home Unions regain control of the professional game and compete with the Southern Hemisphere.

The RFU confirmed at the same management board meeting at Twickenham yesterday that it would be writing to the bankers Warburgs seeking more details of the scheme and at the same time explaining the union's own position on the matter.

If the brainchild of Dr O'Reilly - the chairman of Independent News and Media plc, publishers of the Independent and its sister Sunday paper - were adopted then whatever structure was decided upon would have a larger sum than Walkinshaw's proposal for the clubs to use.

In a statement last night the board indicated the RFU's willingness to work with the clubs and the owners. "The matter of the structure of the game in England should be left in the hands of the Club England Task Group ... which should involve representatives from [the clubs] and whoever else they believe appropriate." This last opens the way for Walkinshaw and others.

The RFU wants to retain control of the club game, while Walkinshaw takes the opposite stance. That is where the O'Reilly scheme scores. In his letter to Allan Hosie, chairman of the Six Nations, Dr O'Reilly sets out his objectives.

The former Lion and Ireland international writes: "In developing Project Lion we have had four key objectives. First, to deliver financial stability from within rugby union's own resources, and to produce a natural, stable and genuinely collective base from which rugby can fulfil its true potential.

"Second, to reassert the authority of the unions - to see to it it that you are well financed, well resourced, and resistant to external pressures, and to place the destiny of rugby once more firmly in your hands.

"Third, to guarantee an unambiguous and undeniable common interest between the four home unions.

"Finally, to facilitate a structure which will secure and sustain the development of competitive rugby - a structure with sufficient financial resource to undertake long-term development programmes from the grass roots, such as those mentioned in the Andrew report..."

No doubt the task Group will also be asked to study Project Lion's small print, at which point the "fat olive branch" may prove too heavy for the clubs to accept.