Carling hints that players will not accept exclusion

ENGLAND may soon be forced by its own international players to find a compromise solution to the self destructive dispute with the three other home unions over the sale of television rights to the Five Nations championship.

Yesterday the former England captain Will Carling hinted that the top players would not stand by and passively accept exclusion from the event and Graham Rowntree also expressed anxieties about the looming threat to England's competitive standards posed by exclusion.

However, France offered the English Union a glimmer of hope in the current deadlock by promising that next season's championship match against England at Twickenham would go ahead as planned. Scotland also welcomed England's request for urgent talks with the Five Nations' committee on the BSkyB deal while simultaneously pointing out that preparatory work on a new Four Nations tournament would have to begin shortly.

Carling dropped what amounted to a fast ticking time bomb into the debate by insisting that the long term viability of English rugby was closely tied to the Five Nations' championship. "I don't believe English rugby can survive without the The Nations," he said before going on to cast doubt on the prospect of the English RFU arranging regular fixtures against Southern Hemisphere nations.

"The tournament has been the foundation for the Northern Hemisphere for years and years and it should stay that way. If that's taken away from you, you're going to get very unhappy players who won't just sit and accept the situation. They would feel tremendous frustration at missing out on international games which are the pinnacle."

Carling warned there would be "huge pressure" from the players to save the championship, urged all the home unions to "start renegotiating" and took a side swipe at the new five year £87.5 million deal with BSkyB which he forecast would reduce rugby's TV audience "massively". He added: "In terms of administration they (the English RFU) have to realise this is a professional game they have to move quickly."

Rowntree pointed out that the existing contract with the BBC had another season to run and for that reason he expected to be playing Five Nations rugby next season. "I am not sure how definitive the other unions' exclusion of England is but I'm quite worried about it," he said. "England do need to play the Southern. Hemisphere countries more often but we also need to keep up our competitive standards by playing each other regularly as well."

France made it clear that the entente cordiale with England would be maintained either inside or outside the Five Nations championship. Bernard Lapasset, president of the French Rugby Federation, declared: "There will continue to be one match a year between France and England. It is very important that the best two rugby nations in Europe keep playing each other on an annual basis. This (the exclusion) is the ultimate bluff by the Five Nations committee. The door is still open but only just. I think England will reconsider and there will be a compromise."

Allan Hosie, one of two Scottish Rugby Union representatives on the Five Nations' committee said at Murrayfield: "The RFU cannot say they were not repeatedly warned, the last time being shortly before their annual general meeting in London last Friday. It was with some surprise and no little disappointment that I learned the warning was not relayed to the meeting and that English rugby representatives were not therefore in full possession of the facts."

Hosie welcomed the announcement by the English RFU president John Richardson that his union wanted to hold urgent talks with "its former partners" in the Five Nations, though he noted that England's decision was somewhat belated.

"But, let me emphasise," he added, "that England are now excluded from the championship and Scotland and the other home unions with the support of France are now going ahead with plans for an alternative championship without England. I should emphasise that the organisation of an international match is a large and complex task and if we are to reschedule fixtures and accommodate those fixtures within our own domestic calendars the work must start now on the new competition."

Hosie underlined the need for rapid decision making by England's representatives. "If the RFU is to change its stance it must indicate that change of stance at the earliest opportunity. Given the complexity of the task to organise we are beyond the 11th hour and hence the necessity of our early announcement on England's exclusion."