Premier Rugby pulls rank over Barbarians fixture

According to the marketing men, the match between the new world champions, South Africa, and the Barbarians at Twickenham on 1 December will mark the moment when "fantasy rugby becomes reality". They are the ones who are fantasising. Despite determined attempts by the Baa-Baas' to recruit top-line English players for a game roundly condemned as a pure money-making exercise for those directly involved, there is no prospect of anyone breaking club ranks to earn himself a few quid on the side.

The fixture clashes with the final round of the EDF Energy Cup pool stage – a competition jointly administered by the same Rugby Football Union that took it into its head to sanction a rival attraction on its own turf that, in the words of the Premier Rugby chief executive, Mark McCafferty, "no longer fits with the professional game". The top-flight sides have effectively been ordered not to release personnel for Barbarians duty. "We have a contractual agreement with our sponsors, as does the RFU, and as this is a cup weekend, we absolutely expect players to put their clubs first," McCafferty said.

Having done without their leading players for the duration of the recent World Cup in France and suffered a 10 per cent drop in Premiership attendances during the course of that tournament, Premier Rugby is profoundly unamused by the positioning of the Baa-Baas game. "I can't say I'm surprised by anything that happens in rugby, but I am disappointed that the Barbarians have attempted to lure players from our clubs, especially as we made our position clear when they came to us to discuss the proposed fixture," McCafferty said. "We recognise the history of Barbarians rugby, but they have to understand that, while we're perfectly willing to work with them on post-season events, it's difficult, if not impossible, for us to provide players at this point in a campaign."

Premier Rugby is an increasingly influential player in union politics worldwide. Over the next 10 days, the organisation will publicly sign up to a new eight-year deal with the RFU that underpins the Premiership's place at the centre of the professional game in England. Later this month, McCafferty and his colleagues will attend an International Rugby Board conference called to address a number of pressing issues, from proposed rule changes to the place of Argentina and the Pacific Islands in a revamped Test schedule.

At some point during the conference, the chief executive is likely to find himself jousting with the IRB's chairman-in-waiting, Bernard Lapasset of France. Lapasset, who succeeds the Irishman Syd Millar on 1 January, yesterday voiced his concern over the number of foreigners playing professionally in the English Premiership, as well as in his own country's elite Top 14 competition. McCafferty will argue two points: firstly, that the numbers commonly peddled are inaccurate, and secondly, that the current balance in England is both sustainable and desirable.

"In this season's Premiership to date, 64 per cent of the players have been English qualified," he said. "That figure has been pretty constant for 10 years, and the debate has gone a little off-line in how the trend is being portrayed by some. What we are seeing is a transformation in the quality and profile of overseas internationals moving to the Premiership, not a transformation in numbers.

"We believe the balance is about right in terms of making our league stronger and more attractive. We'll continue to manage the situation –we don't believe, for example, that Premier League football is the correct model for rugby union. But broadly speaking, we want to see the best players in the world participating in our competition," McCafferty argued.