England are backing a proposal to shift the Six Nations Championship to April and May as the global rugby community seeks a solution to the club v country fixture gridlock which is putting unsustainable pressure on the leading Test players.

Rather than keep the northern hemisphere's most famous tournament in its traditional late winter slot on the European calendar, the Rugby Football Union's chief executive Francis Baron revealed yesterday that England, together with Wales, favour a reshuffle which would see the domestic programme completed before the Six Nations gets underway.

"It's not a case of moving it to June or July, we're not talking about that degree of movement," said Baron, among those who persuaded the International Rugby Board to hire the accountancy firm Deloitte and Touche to compile an independent report on the feasibility of a global season. "I don't think that moving to April/May would dilute the Six Nations at all."

He believes the switch, unpopular with traditionalists who have already seen the competition condensed into late February and March and prefer their Six Nations rugby on crisp winter days, will relieve some of the "pressure points" in the existing schedule and says its commercial value would not be affected by playing the games in early summer.

Among several other proposals being considered by the IRB is for all other Test rugby to be played in late August and September, thus helping to avoid tours by under-strength teams. Some unions, including Scotland and Ireland, are reluctant to tamper with the successful Six Nations format but Baron insists all concerned should be more open-minded.

"We've all got to be flexible for the greater good," he said. All concerned do at least agree that something has to be done to restructure the global fixture list, not least Premier Rugby's chief executive Howard Thomas, who claimed that "the preponderance of international rugby is out of control".

The RFU, meanwhile, yesterday announced a new five-year deal with Sky covering exclusive live rights to England's home games as well as the Zurich Premiership until 2010.

It has also agreed a new four-year sponsorship agreement with the banking group Investec covering the autumn internationals and have finally agreed, in principle, to an improved financial package for England's squad players after months of haggling.