England will play Sunday game to suit TV

Much against their better judgement, Rugby Football Union officials have more or less accepted that one of England's home games in the 2003 Six Nations Championship, probably the March fixture with Italy, will be played on a Sunday – an unprecedented move that will go down like a lead balloon with those Twickenham die-hards who prefer to enjoy their sporting fix without having to worry about getting up for work the following morning.

Having negotiated an exclusive, single-broadcaster deal to televise the entire 15-match tournament, the BBC has made it abundantly clear that its schedules cannot handle three live games on a Saturday, even if the Six Nations Committee agrees to the odd evening kick-off. With Friday night matches – a thoroughly daft idea – now officially deemed a non-starter, the only option is to shift one fixture per weekend to a Sunday slot.

"We are still finalising the fine detail of the agreement, and I think all six unions are keen to see disruption kept to a minimum," Francis Baron, the RFU chief executive, said.

"People do value their Six Nations weekends, and we want our games at Twickenham to be accessible to people from all parts of the country. But we are aware of the BBC's position and if we want every game to be televised live, which we do, we will all have to share the burden. We are seeking a major sponsor for the tournament and we must accept that commercial values are directly linked to large-scale television exposure."

More happily, Baron said there was little prospect of the entire schedule being torn up and rewritten at the behest of the broadcasters.

Some so-called "forward thinkers" had suggested that the England-France match, fixed for the opening Saturday of the tournament, should be moved to the last weekend to provide an alleged "natural climax".

This spectacularly presumptuous suggestion ignored the very salient fact that the two most powerful countries must visit Dublin this season, having lost there last time out. The organisers will do well to leave things as they are.

Changes are on the cards at club level, however. The Zurich Premiership, which begins tomorrow night after an official launch today, is likely to be followed by a severely truncated play-off competition involving the top three league finishers, replacing the eight-team shambles that ensured last season ended with a whimper rather than a bang.

Under the new format, the Premiership champions will qualify automatically for a showpiece final at Twickenham, with the second and third-placed teams playing off for the right to meet them.

Many in the game would prefer to see the play-offs decreased still further... to zero. This would enable the leading players to finish their club business in mid-May rather than early June and use the spare couple of weeks to draw breath in advance of the build-up to the 2003 World Cup in Australia.

It would also allow the very best English clubs to qualify for top-level European rugby by dint of their performance over eight months of relentless league competition, as opposed to three weeks of meaningless play-off frippery.

* The RFU is to submit plans for a new south stand at Twickenham, which will increase the capacity to over 80,000. The proposed improvements will form a central plank of England's bid to host the 2007 World Cup.