Kyran leads unity call for England tour
England's top clubs and players look certain to back the three-Test tour of North America this summer despite moves to use the trip as a major bargaining tool in their negotiations with the Rugby Football Union.
The Premier Rugby Partnership (PRP) - the joint body for players and their clubs - will meet on Thursday to discuss the England tour to Canada and USA.
The present agreement between the Union and the clubs concerning the release of players for international duty runs out at the end of May and the first test against Canada is on 2 June.
There were rumours the England trip, rather than the Lions tour to Australia this summer, would be used to pressure the RFU into a new agreement involving the funding and running of the professional game.
However, Peter Wheeler, the Leicester chief executive who sits on the PRP and RFU boards, said: "I am hopeful that agreement will be found and I don't see the tour as a stick to beat the RFU with, or one that could be used to beat us!
"The tour will have to be discussed because it falls outside the agreement. I am sure the players on the PRP board will want to go through the tour contract.
"There are insurance issues that need to be clarified and I hope there won't be any problems because there are meetings going on all the time to try and find agreement with the RFU."
Wheeler was heartened by the defeat of the Reform Group, representing the game's junior clubs, at last week's Special General Meeting. They wanted to limit the freedom of professional clubs to govern themselves when the new agreement concerning the running of the professional game is signed.
"The RFU's success in winning the votes at SGM means we have the chance to establish some continuity. But it's difficult to say an end is in sight when we have had so many false dawns and the fat lady has been ready to sing only for everyone to find she has lost her voice at the crucial moment."
With regular England captain Martin Johnson on Lions duty in Australia this summer, Kyran Bracken has been chosen to lead England's 40-strong squad in North America.
And the Saracens skipper has made an appeal for the England tour to be allowed to continue without any disruption.
Bracken said: "We have heard little or nothing about negotiations with the PRP and the RFU and I presume something would have been said if there was a problem.
"We need the tour to go ahead because it's important for the development of the England team. It would be a great shame if it became a political tool, but I haven't heard anything about the trip being in jeopardy."
Clive Woodward, the England team manager, is equally upbeat and insists it would be counter productive to affect player release for a national tour.
He had to deal with a strike by the England squad over their contract row with the RFU last November. Woodward said: "I cannot believe this trip or the Lions tour would be brought into the negotiations."
