England seek to be Maine attraction

England will consider breaking new ground next season by returning to Manchester and staging their match against Romania at Maine Road. The venue, on offer to Sale as an ambitious alternative to their modest home at Heywood Road, won approval at Twickenham yesterday for a fixture which falls between the major Tests against Australia and South Africa in November.

When England last went to Manchester, a capacity crowd of almost 60,000 turned up to see them lose to the All Blacks at Old Trafford. RFU chairman Brian Baister said: 'We are an English game and England does not stop at Watford.

'Maine Road is an ideal location for matches such as the Romania one.' England will not play the All Blacks again until November 2002 when they also face the Wallabies and Springboks in the three-Test autumn series. After America next year, summer tours will take them to the South Pacific in 2002 followed by Japan, Australia and New Zealand in 2003.

All that is based on the assumption that the RFU will still have a national team worthy of the name. Despite renewed proposals aimed at shifting the impasse over the vexed issue of promotion and relegation, a settlement is still nowhere in sight.

Chief executive Francis Baron claimed that both the Premiership and Second Division clubs were 'currently considering a new set of proposals, based on one automatic promotion and relegation place for the next two seasons with a single home-and-away play-off thereafter.' The RFU's proposal for a review in June 2002 prompted sharp disapproval from the club's umbrella body, English First Division Rugby Ltd.

Their board said it was 'amazed that the RFU has once again changed its position. We are exasperated that the RFU is postponing the debate for a further two years.' The southern hemisphere's call for a global season, running from February to November, met with a muted response at Twickenham yesterday. 'We had trouble attracting spectators to games in August, never mind June and July,' said Baister.