Walkinshaw quashes rumours of Gloucester sale

Manchester City may now be the plaything of a Middle Eastern sheikh who burns money the way the rest of us burn oil, but for the moment at least, Gloucester RFC are sticking with what they know. Tom Walkinshaw, the Kingsholm chairman, went out of his way yesterday to spike reports that a substantial chunk of the club was up for sale, and that someone from down Abu Dhabi way was interested in buying. "We haven't had any approaches, direct or indirect, and we have no plans to sell or give up majority control," said the one-time Formula One team owner.

"We may look at bringing in partners because we want to keep growing. We want to compete domestically and internationally; we want a larger ground so supporters who want to come can do so, and we want to do it as fast as we possibly can. But I can categorically say that the club is not for sale."

This is not the first time Walkinshaw's controlling interest has been the subject of debate in and around England's most rugby-obsessed neighbourhood, but there is little evidence that the chairman wants out. He has recently established Kingsholm as one of the finest rugby stadiums in the country – of the 12 Guinness Premiership teams, only Northampton and Harlequins can boast such modern facilities, although Leicester are about to start development work at Welford Road – and when the clubs thrashed out their long-awaited agreement with the Rugby Football Union on international player release and associated matters, Walkinshaw was the man who did the negotiating.

However, it will not be surprising if a significant amount of new foreign money finds its way into the Premiership sooner rather than later. The leading clubs are worried about the financial muscle currently being flexed in France, where a wholly unregulated free-market approach has allowed a growing number of clubs to spend millions of euros on big-name southern hemisphere imports. Toulouse, Stade Français, Perpignan, Clermont Auvergne and Biarritz are all handsomely equipped with powerful squads of 40-plus players, while less successful teams – Toulon, Bayonne, Montpellier – have access to investment beyond the wildest dreams of most English sides.

The next World Cup, in New Zealand in 2011, will follow the model of the last two highly successful tournaments in Australia and France by concentrating the semi-finals, third place play-off and final in a single city. Auckland has been confirmed as the venue for the last week of the competition – the Eden Park stadium is the subject of imaginative rebuilding plans – with the quarter-finals being shared between Wellington and Christchurch. It means one of the world's great rugby cities, Dunedin, will miss out on the knock-out stage. The best the old "House of Pain" can hope for is a couple of pool fixtures.

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