The Rugby Football Union will meet later today in the hope of averting a split with the EFDR over delays in the introduction of the Rob Andrew plan for elite rugby.

The Premiership clubs want the RFU to implement the Rob Andrew plans for the future of the game, which were negotiated between the English Rugby Partnership and the RFU, without delay.

According to Bristol chief executive Nick de Scossa, the EFDR will step in at noon on Monday to structure the future of the professional game in England if the RFU do not respond to the ultimatum.

If that happens, then the EFDR will structure their own elite competition of weekly home and away matches in the season 2001/02 - with relegation and promotion to the new league decided by a home and away play-off.

Bristol chairman Malcolm Pearce, who has invested over £5million in the past two years, is so concerned about the situation that he has released de Scossa to work at the EFDR offices from Monday to ensure that the structure for next season is in place.

"My role, on behalf of the Bristol club, is to ensure that the EFDR get the details sorted out, including television rights, sponsorship and a workable fixture list in place by January or February," said de Scossa.

"The EFDR have a contract with the RFU for Rob Andrew's plan to be in place and they have said that they will give each of the 12 Premiership clubs £1.8million, but they have been unable to deliver.

"We can't see any light at the end of the tunnel for an RFU problem of their own making. Instead it is a big light, the RFU, thundering towards us."

The clubs are each owed £600,000 by the RFU, under an agreement which should have seen them receive £150,000-a-month, while the clubs in National League One, the former Premiership Two, have received their monies.

This lack of cash is hitting some of the smaller Premiership clubs, especially at a time when the league has given way to the two European competitions followed by two rounds of the Tetley's Bitter Cup.

Former Bath and England coach Jack Rowell, who is already working two days a week at the Bristol club, will become their new managing director on Monday and become full time from the beginning of next month.