Progress in Euro talks, but deal a long way off

Two days of talks ended yesterday in Dublin with the ERC and its six member unions moving halfway towards the rebellious English and French clubs and their demands for a radically altered European club structure.

Even at that, it doesn’t look like it will be half enough.

A mere handful of hours passed after the details of the deliberations in the Irish capital were made public before Mark McCafferty, chief executive of Premiership Rugby (PRL), reiterated their insistence on a “fresh start”.