Tentative talks taking place for Irish and British league says RFU chief Sweeney

The English Rugby Football Union (RFU) has confirmed that tentative talks are taking place investigating the potential of a British and Irish team competition.

The Union's chief executive, Bill Sweeney, said that they are exploring every avenue to bolster English rugby, which has undergone a crisis in recent years with teams like London Irish, Wasps and Worcester Warriors exiting the domestic league due to financial issues.

Sweeney said that the current Gallagher Premiership would not be currently affected, and future plans would run parallel with the existing structures.

"It’s a very tentative, hypothetical conversation at this stage," said Sweeney.

"But it has certain merits, but it also has certain challenges. It doesn’t affect the PGP, we will go ahead with a PGP in parallel, and just do that. But it’s one of a number of things that people talk about in terms of how do you take the game forward.

"It is fraught with challenges, I tend to think about look what happened in football with the European Super League, so fans are going to be taken into consideration on this. What does that mean in terms of the overall structure?

"Some very big, significant questions are going to be asked on it, which is why I say at this stage, it’s very tentative but we consider all conversations."