England’s leading rugby clubs "could suspend Premiership promotion and relegation for as long as five years if plans to revamp the top end of the domestic game win the support of the Rugby Football Union."
Firm proposals "have yet to be tabled, but as the clubs want to expand the elite league and then pull up the drawbridge at the end of next season, the clock is ticking ever faster." Gloucester CEO Stephen Vaughan said this week that the existing Premiership sides "would have to win the 'hearts and minds' argument as well as convince the rugby public of the financial case for such a fundamental restructuring." Vaughn: "We absolutely see this as a progressive move for the sport in this country" (London INDEPENDENT, 4/15). ... The Australian Football League and the players union "remain at odds over the cause of the season-ending knee injury sustained by Michael Close after an expert found that 'a shallow ditch' by the boundary line at Etihad Stadium could have contributed the young Lion's damaged knee."
But the league, according to the players' association, "has agreed to fill in the areas in question before Saturday night's North Melbourne-Port Adelaide game after the ground was again examined on Thursday by experts, stadium officials and a players' representative." The changes "will be made for safety reasons" (THE AGE, 4/16).
