Players voice fears over marriage of Bristol and Bath

Very nearly 21,000 spectators will watch this weekend's Bristol-Bath derby at Ashton Gate, a record audience for a Premiership match, and if the owners of the two teams reach agreement over the next few days, there will be a lot more of the same next season. The clubs are on the brink of a merger that would signal the most radical realignment of West Country rugby in well over a century, and assuming the deal is sanctioned by the various authorities with a say in the matter, including the Rugby Football Union, professional fixtures will be split between the cities.

"This a great opportunity for the game in this area, an obvious way forward, and I hope and believe that common sense will prevail," said Malcolm Pearce, the principal investor at Bristol, last night. "The interested parties are still talking and there are some difficulties ahead, but I have been saying for years that the Bath-Bristol region could and should support one outstanding team. When the dust settles on all this, I believe everyone will accept that it has been done for the right reasons. Professional rugby in Bristol has shown itself to be unsustainable, but a merged club with a proper board of directors, proper investment and proper shareholders is a very exciting prospect."

Bath, the champions of Europe as recently as five years ago but struggling for Premiership survival this term, acknowledged yesterday that discussions were in progress, thereby confirming what had become an open secret in local rugby circles. Andrew Brownsword, the exceptionally wealthy businessman who bought a 75 per cent holding in the club in 1996, was unavailable for comment – "He is not here, and he is about to go away," said his personal assistant, rather confusingly – but Bob Calleja, the general manager, admitted: "Our objective is a sustainable structure for top-class rugby in the west of England."

The trustees of Bath, who own the remaining 25 per cent of the club and count the valuable Lambridge training ground as part of their holding, have been fully informed of the talks and have raised no immediate objection. Slowly but surely, the players of the two clubs are getting to hear of it too, and they are less comfortable with the proposals. "This is not a merger; it's a Bath takeover," said one of the few senior Bristol players yet to secure alternative employment for next season. "How can someone buy a century's worth of rugby history and just shut the whole thing down?"

There was a commensurate degree of alarm at Bath, too. "You don't need soap operas or reality TV when you work here," Brian Smith, the co-coach, said. "It's like living with the volume turned right up – you certainly know you're alive."

However, Smith dismissed the idea that Sunday's bottom-of-the-table derby, with all its supposed relegation implications, was now a non-event. "Anyone who thinks it will be anything other than a very fierce battle is kidding himself," he insisted. "We want to stay in the Premiership as of right and people are playing for contracts as well as pride." Was he concerned for his own future? "As the coaches are asking the players to focus solely on this game, we need to show that discipline ourselves," he replied, evasively.

Pearce, a generous supporter of Bath before he bought into Bristol five years ago, has long dreamed of a West Country super-club, and he is convinced that considerable sums of new money will be pumped into any merged team. As plans stand, most of next season's games will be played at the 8,200-capacity Recreation Ground, with top-of-the-bill games at the all-seat Ashton Gate, the home of Bristol City football club.