Cash-strapped Neath are facing a battle to keep the club's star players as a private consortium lines up to buy the Welsh All Blacks.

With Shane Williams interesting Gloucester and Brett Sinkinson, Delme Williams and James Storey also on the books the club are desperate to sort out their finances before the start of next season.

Businessman Lyn Williams, who is leading a consortium hoping to buy-out Neath, has said the Welsh Rugby Union (WRU) are pressurising the club to sell players, something denied by the WRU.

"I am interested in being involved with a consortium if the right people are involved as well as the right money. They have to be rugby people with Neath's interests at heart.

"There has been pressure from the WRU for Shane, Brett, Delme and James to be sold, but I am optimistic that Neath will not be in WRU hands for very long," he told the Western Mail.

The club is currently run by a company established by the WRU which was brought in to ensure its survival but which will sell the club once the long-term future has been ensured.

But losing out on a Heineken Cup place last season and the £150,000 that come with it has hit them badly and sponsors are proving difficult to come by.

Dennis Gethin, secretary of the WRU, said: "We have spent a lot of time and effort on Neath's affairs, but the WRU's interest in rugby at The Gnoll was only ever intended to be for an interim period.

"It has never been a long-term ambition of the WRU to control rugby at The Gnoll, and we want to ensure the club not only survives, but hopefully thrives.

"It is my personal belief that Neath can again be a major force in Welsh rugby."

The process of transferring Neath's interests to the WRU were held up for two years after the old committee collapsed but Gethin said the difficulties should soon be over and the WRU should be in a position to enter into negotiations with interested parties.

A meeting has been arranged for tomorrow night for the club's patrons to set out the situation and allay any fears.