AN EIGHT-YEAR agreement between the English Rugby Football Union (RFU) and the clubs could be torn up after less than a season because of the global financial crisis.

An RFU spokesman said yesterday all financial aspects of the game would be discussed at a meeting of the management board and Premiership clubs today, when automatic promotion and relegation to and from the Premiership could be one of the issues on the agenda.

“The union’s policy is clear – promotion and relegation is written into the contract for eight years,” RFU management board chairman Martyn Thomas said recently. “That said, it’s 100 years since we’ve faced an economic climate like this. We don’t want to wreck this agreement one year in, but we understand that the clubs are facing critical problems.

“We need a successful, solvent Premiership producing quality England players. Public hangings are exciting, just as long as you’re not the bloke standing on the trap. We have to keep an open mind; it would be wrong to rule out anything.”

One theory is that the the clubs will request a suspension of promotion and relegation in return for a cut in the numbers of overseas players they register.

Fears of a thinning of English talent in the Premiership were fuelled when London club Saracens announced they would be sacking 15 players at the end of the season to make way for a group of South Africans expected to arrive with new coach Brendan Venter.

BULLS winger Bryan Habana will be out of action for up to four weeks after having surgery on a broken right hand. World Cup winner Habana sustained the injury on Saturday during the Bulls’ 16-9 victory over the Lions in Johannesburg. Habana, the 2007 International Rugby Board Player of the year, could return against the Otago Highlanders in New Zealand on March 28th.