Twickenham bosses today rubber-stamped Rob Andrew's blueprint for the future of English professional rugby union.

The detailed document, which took six months and more than 25 meetings before it could be drawn up, includes provision for three possible new additions to the English rugby calendar next season.

The Rugby Football Union hopes to discuss Andrew's report with their top clubs as soon as possible.

If backing is received from English First Division Rugby then next season could start with a Challenge Shield match on August 19, followed by a midweek British Cup and end-of-season rugby league-style Premiership play-offs, culminating in a May 12 grand final.

More detailed proposals targeting areas such as a franchised-based elite league would not come into effect until season 2001/2002 and the RFU would look to complete detailed discussions with their clubs by Christmas.

The Challenge Shield would be a one-off match between the English grand final winners, or league champions in next August's case, and an equivalent team from the Celtic unions.

The playing structure would provide for two initial rounds followed by quarter-finals, semi-finals and a final.

The semi-finals would take place on neutral grounds, with the final at Twickenham probably on January 20 next year.

The competition would include 12 English sides and another 12 Celtic representatives.

The 12-team Premiership would kick-off on August 26, running through until April 16 next year, with eight sides making the end-of-season play-offs on a straight knock-out basis.

The job now for former England fly-half Andrew, who has chaired the taskforce group to come up with future proposals, is to get them accepted by the clubs.

That is by no means certain, especially as millionaire motor racing boss and Gloucester owner Tom Walkinshaw has a 16-team Anglo-Welsh counter proposal available.

But the RFU are determined to press ahead after their Council today followed Twickenham's management board by agreeing the Andrew plan.

"Enormous effort has gone into this paper and the RFU Council today accepted it in its totality," said management board chairman Brian Baister.

"The immediate aim now is to have discussions with our Premier clubs in a spirit of openness and co-operation to find agreement.

"We are all behind this paper and having had four years of poor experience of professional rugby in this country we are not in the business of conflict.

We have just agreed a way forward and we want to sit around the table and are keen to meet as soon as possible."

Plans for the British Cup will require urgent attention and backing from the Celtic unions if it is to be installed in time for next season, replacing the current Tetley's Bitter Cup as a top-flight competition.

Next season is described in the Andrew report as a "transitional year" when the average amount of money released to each club would be £1million, £million of that underwritten by the RFU.

That seasonal figure would rise to £million by season 2004/2005, figures which compare favourably with Walkinshaw's scheme.

A Super 12-style points-scoring system is also a possibility for the Premiership next season.

This would be four points for a win, two points for a draw, one bonus point if a team loses by seven points or less and one bonus point for scoring four tries or more.

It is proposed the franchises would be decided by a commission, with each successful applicant meeting strict criteria.

These include each stadium having a minimum crowd capacity of 10,000, while areas such as floodlighting, disabled facilities and entertainment capacity would also be tackled.

Once the franchise league is underway there would be no promotion and relegation for the first two seasons.

But from the end of season 2002/2003 the club finishing top of level two, currently Allied Dunbar Premiership Two, will have the right to challenge the Premier League's bottom outfit.

But that could only happen if the two clubs were in the same geographical area and the challenging club could meet various qualifying criteria already set out.

Club England chairman Fran Cotton said: "We want to meet with our EFDR colleagues as soon as possible. This is the first time they have had a firm proposal from the RFU."

The Andrew document also includes provisions restricting the number of games for leading players and is now heralded as the way forward for the English professional game.
The main proposals of the Andrew Plan