Here are two facts which may partly explain why the Rugby Football Union and the Guinness Premiership clubs have been at each other's throats since England won the World Cup four years ago.

1. The RFU will hand out between £1.5m and £2m to the England squad in match fees this World Cup. If the unlikely happens and the men in white retain the Webb Ellis Trophy, bonuses will be paid by the team's sponsors.

2. Wasps, the Heineken Cup holders, have seven players in the England squad, more than any other club. The compensation they receive for handing over their players to England for five months? Nothing. Imagine the RFU 'lending' its chief executive Francis Baron to another company for half a year, carrying on paying his wages in full and receiving no recompense. And when he comes back he wants a holiday.

The RFU does hand over an extra £1m to Premier Rugby in a World Cup year, but this covers a number of areas, including the possibility of reduced gates because the leading players are elsewhere; and it is divided equally among the 12 clubs, three of whom, Leeds, Worcester and Gloucester, do not have a player between them in the England squad.

Worse is to come for Wasps and the other clubs who provide England with players. There is no elite player scheme in operation this season, so Premiership sides will not be compensated for providing players to Twickenham for next year's Six Nations.

Wasps operate a squad of 34 players, 10 of whom are at the World Cup. "When people go on about the number of foreign players in the Premiership, they need to understand that for a club like Wasps, which pursues a policy of developing young English talent, it costs us to fly the flag," said the club's director of rugby Ian McGeechan. "We need extra players to see us through the World Cup months and members of our board are having to reach into their pockets.

"It is not unreasonable to expect clubs to be compensated for providing players to England for long periods of time. Some have reacted by signing more and more players from abroad who will be available for a whole season and that is an understandable policy. We will continue to back England, but things have to change."

It should be all change next year. The RFU and Premier Rugby have reached an agreement in principle about the future management of elite players. The deal, which when it is signed will come into force next season, is worth more than £10m to the clubs a year in return for allowing the Union's elite rugby director Rob Andrew to effectively control the England squad.

There are many other provisions, including a voluntary one that will reward clubs financially if they hit various quotas of England qualified players. It would provide the likes of Wasps with the means to sign replacements for players when they are on England duty.

The RFU had hoped the agreement would have been signed last Friday, the day of England's group match against South Africa. The day before it presented Premier Rugby with a 30-page document, which is still being scanned. The RFU hopes everything will be finalised next week, before what could be a decisive pool match against Tonga.

It will only have taken four years. English rugby: even slower off the field than on it.