Gloucester opt to pack up troubles and head for HQ

Rugby's conundrums and contradictions continue to baffle. A few days after the latest round of redundancies among back-room and administrative staff at Gloucester, the Premiership leaders confirmed that 25,000 local supporters will travel to Twickenham for this weekend's Powergen Cup final with Northampton. This latest money-spinning bulletin will interest players such as Trevor Woodman and Phil Vickery, who, according to Kingsholm insiders, are owed tens of thousands of pounds in wages and have been asked to forfeit guaranteed bonus payments.

"We've been cutting budgets and laying off people since pre-season, so it's business as usual at Castle Grim," said Nigel Melville, the director of rugby, in a laughter-in-the-darkness kind of way. "What can we do, except get on with our jobs? The beauty of this squad is their willingness to do their bit. They have a passion about their rugby and they enjoy each other's company. This is a massive game for the club and the city, and for all the problems in the background, we're treating it as such."

Gloucester sold their batch of 22,000 tickets in five daysand exhausted their top-up allocation as quickly. Northampton also asked for additional tickets. Tournament organisers expect a full house on Saturday.

While rugby's balance sheet would leave the Adam Smith Institute in a state of terminal confusion, there are other issues of concern – not least the question of uncontested scrums, which generated all manner of mayhem after the semi-final between Gloucester and Leicester last month. Some students of the labyrinthine regulations surrounding front-row replacements felt Gloucester should have been eliminated from the competition after running out of serviceable prop forwards in the final minutes of the tie, and Leicester thought long and hard about appealing before accepting defeat. As we speak, there has been no clarification.

"It's a case of awaiting directions," said Dean Ryan, Melville's partner at the top end of the Gloucester hierarchy. "The minefield is still there, it seems, although I still believe we acted within the law during the Leicester game. All we can do is speak to the people at Premier Rugby before the final and ask for some guidance."

If any rugby country has been short of guidance these last six years or so, Wales takes the biscuit. Yesterday, however, there were signs of a bright new dawn. Representatives of the élite clubs met David Moffett, the chief executive of the Welsh Rugby Union, in Cardiff to seek an end to the impasse over funding for the five regionally-based teams due to be put forward for inclusion in next season's Celtic League and Heineken Cup, and came away with an agreement that may just signal an end to the protracted political agony.

Llanelli, Cardiff and the three new mergers – Newport-Ebbw Vale, Neath-Swansea and Bridgend-Pontypridd – will share £7.5m next term, £500,000 less than they initially demanded. Assuming the board of European Rugby Cup Ltd accepts the proposed changes at a meeting in Dublin today, the WRU will press ahead with contractual and marketing arrangements for the five-team structure it hopes will restore international fortunes.