The widening gulf between rugby's haves and have-nots, which some fear will saddle the professional club game in England with a self-perpetuating elite along the lines of football's "big four", was put in worrying perspective yesterday by Richard Hill, the outstanding coach of Bristol. Hill tacitly admitted that the West Country club would start the new season more than £1m adrift of the likes of Gloucester and Leicester – or, to put in another way, at least 25 per cent down on spending power.

South Africa’s coach and captain are under fire from the International Rugby Board (IRB) for their criticisms and questioning of referee Matt Goddard in last Saturday’s Cape Town Test.

The most controversial of the "experimental law variations" currently on trial in the southern hemisphere's Tri-Nations tournament – the abolition of penalties in favour of free-kicks for all offences apart from offside – will not feature in the forthcoming European club season, which begins in France next week. Efforts by the International Rugby Board to identify a "guinea pig" competition have proved fruitless, and there is no appetite among the most top-flight teams in the British Isles to help the governing body find one.