The Welsh Rugby Union, which is struggling to service a £70m debt, expects to next month agree a refinancing package with its two major creditors, Barclays Bank and BT.
In May the WRU closed down the Celtic Warriors, reducing the number of regions to four, and the Welsh sides receive considerably less income annually than their English counterparts. The WRU has struggled financially since building the £105m Millennium Stadium and has been unable to repay any of the £55m owed to Barclays. A small part of the land the stadium occupies is still owned by BT.
"We are meeting with Barclays and BT and we hope that something will be sorted out next month," said the WRU chairman David Pickering. "It would be wrong to talk about the details of the talks at this moment, but the union is committed to strong financial management and we have the support of our bankers and creditors in what we are trying to achieve."
Barclays is believed to be considering writing off part of the debt because of the uncertainty about when the WRU would be able to start paying it back, and the rest would be consolidated into a long-term loan spread over 30-40 years.
"We have had to cut our costs and we are still going to have to be careful in the future," said Pickering. "It is about survival at the end of the day, but we are moving in the right direction and we have met our debt problem head on rather than trying to ignore it."
Wales have arranged a Test against South Africa on November 6 as a means of raising income, but the fixture is concerning the regions, who have Heineken Cup matches on the preceding weekend. The Wales coach Mike Ruddock met the regions yesterday to explain why he wanted 13 of his squad to miss the first three weeks of the Celtic League campaign in order to complete pre-season training programmes.
"I am not going down the road of telling the regions that they cannot field players," said Ruddock. "I want a partnership with them. I will not be pulling players out of Heineken Cup matches before the South Africa game, but in return I will be looking for access to them outside the week of the international."
The England captain Lawrence Dallaglio will lead Wasps against Llanelli Scarlets at Stradey Park tonight in the Zurich Anglo-Celtic Challenge.
· Jonny Wilkinson hopes to play his first full game since the World Cup final at Kingston Park on Saturday, against Birmingham's Pertemps Bees. Wilkinson has played twice, against Connacht and Munster, since suffering a career-threatening shoulder and neck injury eight months ago.
