England wait for decision

ENGLAND officials will learn today whether their team has a chance of being allowed back into the Five Nations Championship.

Their European partners met last night to discuss the Rugby Football Union's compromise proposals in the long running Tv row that has led to England being thrown out of the championship, because of their deal with BSkyB.

England hope their partners will come back to them today with an invitation to attend yet another meeting later this week, at which a solution to the dispute might be thrashed out.

The last meeting of the Five Nations - in Cardiff two weeks ago - ended in stalemate and officials from Ireland, Scotland and Wales have made it clear they will not waste time travelling around Europe again if England refuse to back down on the Sky deal.

However, it is believed that when the RFU executive committee met last week, there was a significant shift in members' stance, raising hopes of saving the 84 year old competition.

England will be expected to come back into the fold of the four home nations on TV negotiations - France have their own arrangement - before a new broadcasting deal is agreed.

One final stumbling block, however, might be that England's partners have not yet agreed on the principle of having Five Nations Championship matches live on satellite.

There is strong feeling that this would disadvantage an estimated 85 per cent of fans who only have terrestrial TV.