The Welsh Rugby Union suffered its second defeat in as many days yesterday when its proposal to reduce the number of professional sides from nine to six was thrown out at an emergency meeting of its member clubs in Cardiff.

Delegates made it plain in their speeches against the motion that the reduction in numbers they wanted to see concerned the union's 27-strong general committee and the main victor as they threw out the plan by 325 votes to 98 was the union's president, Sir Tasker Watkins. His working party report urging a radical shake-up of the way the game in Wales is run should have been voted on at the start of the year, but it was subjected to filibustering tactics by members of the committee.

The motion had been proposed by the WRU chairman Glanmor Griffiths and his address was in apocalyptic terms. "If this proposal is defeated, it could cause irreparable harm to our game," he intoned. "This is make or break and you have a momentous decision to make. Having nine or 12 clubs encourages them to look for short-term fixes in the shape of overseas mercenaries."

Griffiths did not receive any support from the floor. Representatives of the so-called Gang of Six clubs - Llanelli, Cardiff, Swansea, Newport, Pontypridd and Bridgend - after forcing the issue last month by mobilising their nat ional squad players, who threatened to go on strike before the international against England, sat mute and grim-faced as one speaker after another excoriated them for their greed which, it was said, had resulted from their gross financial mismanagement.

"The gang tell us that it is not about money but the good of the Welsh game," said Paul Russell, a director of one of the clubs threatened by the motion, Ebbw Vale. "That is like Colonel Sanders looking at a chicken and saying 'trust me'. This is an odious little motion put forward on behalf of the greedy six who have run out of money."

David Escott, chairman of the First Division clubs' association, said: "Glanmor Griffiths should resign and so should all the members of the general committee who allowed themselves to be bullied into supporting a reduction to six. This issue shows the urgent need for a professional executive to be set up to run the top end of the game."

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