One of the players suggested they organise a car-boot sale to help Walkinshaw’s cash-flow problems. Awaiting the fickle finger of fiscal fate, it helps to have a sense of humour.Gloucester are citing a shortfall in central funding from the Rugby Football Union and a legal wrangle with a sponsor who signed up at the beginning of the season but then withdrew. The appropriately named Lost Boys, a Dutch company, have been involved with Walkin- shaw’s Formula One racing team Arrows, who have gone into liquidation. Though the rugby deal with the Lost Boys went pear-shaped, the club struck a jersey sponsorship with a company called Baan, who chose to go with Gloucester rather than Wolverhampton Wanderers.They have had a terrific run for their £400,000, with the Cherry and Whites leading the Premiership almost from week one, and reaching the semi-finals of the Powergen Cup. The only setback has come in the Heineken Cup, but Kingsholm has been overflowing for every match.Despite this, cuts have already been made, with several players released, and there was considerable ill-feeling when the ticket-office manager was abruptly made redundant in September. She was one of the longest-serving employees, and her dismissal represents a saving of £15,000 a year.

The ticket-office staff walked out in sympathy.The players, who will meet Walkinshaw again this week, are bemused. “Far from being inclined to take a cut, they feel they have delivered,” said one insider “They would like a lot more information. On the face of it everything should be rosy.”The tone was set at Red Rose headquarters at Twickenham last Monday when Francis Baron, chief executive of the RFU, followed the fashion of the City by issuing a profits warning. After reporting a healthy surplus last year, Baron predicted the RFU would slide into the red, principally because the World Cup in Australia will preclude England’s money-spinning autumn internationals.”It’s not just the clubs feeling the pinch, the national unions are feeling it too,” Baron said.

“We are all in the same boat and I see no prospect of a recovery before 2004. It is down to everyone to cut their coat according to their cloth.”This is the new mantra, but not everybody will be walking around in a waistcoat. “Wages are too high for the conditions in which the industry finds itself,” Peter Wheeler, chief executive of Leicester, said.The majority of players earn less than £50,000. Some – and this is down to owners who have more money than taste – earn more than the Prime Minister. In any case, there is supposed to be a salary cap per club of £1.8 million.”I’m trying not to lose money in this damn game and it’s the biggest challenge I’ve faced in business,” Brian Kennedy, the owner of Sale, said “The commercial model for professional rugby doesn’t work. As long as benefactors are willing to pump money in there isn’t a problem, but we are trying to create a business that doesn’t rely on the whim of a sugar daddy.”Malcolm Pearce, Bristol’s benefactor, has said he will withdraw at the end of the season. “He’s spent a personal fortune and it’s very, very sad,” Kennedy added.