Premier stars say one game a week

England's Premiership rugby players are flexing their muscles again, demanding urgent action to eliminate the distant rumble of further strike action.

With the authorities unable to resolve the mess over a domestic season now running to 10 months, the Professional Rugby Players Association made a stand yesterday in protest at flogging themselves through an ever-punishing schedule.

'The players are not going to be ignored any longer,' said chief executive Damian Hopley. 'We are going to make sure that our voice is heard.' A group of leading players, including England captain Martin Johnson and his predecessor Lawrence Dallaglio will present the Rugby Football Union with their blueprint for a season stripped of its current congestion. They will demand no more than one game a week, a maximum 35-match season and a minimum 12-week summer break. For Johnson, Dallaglio and every other top English player, a season which began in mid-August will run without a break until the end of the Lions Test series in Australia in mid-July.

'Unless something is done, the careers of young players are going to be drastically shortened,' said Dallaglio. 'We are not in a militant mood about this and we are not looking for confrontation but it is time our views were taken into account.' Nobody ruled strike action out as the ultimate sanction. 'We are being very positive about this and at the moment we have no wish to go down the route of a strike,' said Hopley.

'After what happened last November, the players are acutely aware that they do not want to be seen as being greedy. This has nothing to do with greed and everything to do with commonsense.' The Second Division clubs last night rejected the latest format agreed by the RFU and Premiership clubs over promotion and relegation.