Rugby Football Union to make last-ditch effort to save Heineken Cup for next season "I have spoken to Stuart [Lancaster] and our view is that it is all manageable," Ritchie said. Of course, the preferred position is for there to be a pan-European competition. But if there isn't, there isn't. It will be just one season and players will get a rest. It is not what we want but it will not be a blow to England at the World Cup. Ritchie's bullishness extended only so far. He said that he could not be "wholly confident" that it would all come together but that he had come to the brink of "being obsessive" about trying to free up the logjam. The chief executive also admitted that he had been annoyed about the RFU being excluded from the critical meeting of other unions in Dublin on Nov 21, the upshot of which was the English clubs being ostracised. We were not happy about that, but does that mean we are going to take our bat and ball away and not go to another meeting? No, it does not," Ritchie said. We all need to be bigger than that. We all need to be more professional than that. When so much stuff has been agreed I struggle to understand why it is not possible to get a deal. That means we have to get back in to a room. I will bust a gut to try to make this happen. Frankly, none of the alternatives is that palatable. We all want that pan-European tournament. We owe it to everyone - fans, players, sponsors - to deliver that. Ritchie outlined what had been agreed prior to the latest schism. The format was in place, with a 20:20 split, 20 teams in the senior competition, 20 in the secondary. There would be seven from the Rabo, with six apiece from England and France. There would be a play off for the last spot between the seventh-placed French and English teams in the first season, and after that between four sides, two joining from the Rabo. The distribution of monies was settled with the pot divided equally between the three parties: the English league, the French and the Rabo. That arrangement would be set in stone for five years, with a guaranteed €20 million (£16.7 million) apiece, with an extra €4 million to go to the Rabo teams if revenues rose above the collective €60 million. Ritchie's exposition shows how much progress had been made. The overall accord would run for six years with a two-year notice period after that, giving stability in Europe for eight years. Many of the governance issues had been resolved, on control of refereeing, doping and the other operational matters, and, critically, the sanctity of the International Rugby Board calendar and the international window was upheld. "There is a lot already in place," Ritchie said. There were still sticking points over the framework of governance: that is the make-up of the controlling body. The English clubs do not want to see European Rugby Cup, an independent body set up originally by the unions, in charge but had agreed in principle to the tournament being run by the Six Nations committee, that is two members (Ritchie and Bill Beaumont are England's representatives) per country. The other options are to set up a new type of company or continue with ERC. Only the French went against the notion of the Six Nations committee handling affairs. There is also the sticking point of conflicting broadcasters, Sky and the Premiership's BT Sport. As Ritchie pointed out: "I worked for 25 years in television and broadcasters have to know what their content is, which is why we need to get that sorted first. At the moment, neither broadcaster will be happy. Ritchie was measured and conciliatory to the point when it was put to him that the RFU was the poodle of the Premiership, backed into a corner for fear of seeing its RWC 2015 derailed. It was also suggested that the other unions had become disenchanted by the RFU's support of its clubs. "Let us kill this idea that we are too close or ought to be instructing them about this or that and that makes us a weak union," Ritchie said. We have a buoyant, modern relationship. We do not want to be telling our clubs what to do. To say that we are cowed by them is a nonsense. It is crackers. We want to work with them for the good of all. Ritchie also disclosed that the RFU has had talks over match-fixing and was represented at the cross-sport gathering at Whitehall on Tuesday to discuss the issue. "We have a rugby integrity unit and have taken advice from all quarters," Ritchie said. It would be foolish to say it might never happen, but the indication from the Gambling Commission is that there had been no dubious betting patterns in rugby.