Bridgend are the latest club in Britain to stare bankruptcy in the face with debts of more than £1 million, with members being told at the annual meeting that £200,000 was needed urgently to pay the Inland Revenue and Customs and Excise. A two-man consortium, which had pledged to invest at least £500,000, pulled out when the Welsh Rugby Union refused to say that at least eight clubs would remain in the Premier Division for the foreseeable future.

"I could not understand the union's attitude," said Bridgend's chairman Derrick King. "Llanelli and Ebbw Vale have been given that undertaking in writing. If the union had given it to us, our financial problems would have been solved.

"As it is, we are on the brink of trouble because of our own governing body, and I am very angry. Our debts are made up largely of loans, all of which are being serviced."

The wage bill last season was £721,000, even though most of the players were employed on a part-time basis.

"It worked out at an average of £21,000 a player," said the club's financial administrator Edward Jones. "We understand that the Neath club, which is now owned by the WRU, is offering salaries that we cannot compete with."

The union is unlikely to bail out Bridgend because it does not have sufficient funds after salvaging Neath and hiring the New Zealander Graham Henry as the national coach in a five-year deal worth £1.25 million.

Coventry, facing debts of around £2.3 million and struggling to play their opening Premiership Two fixture at Worcester in five weeks, could be bought by local businessmen only days after calling in the receiver. John Kelly, the accountant who took overall control of the club on Tuesday, said: "We have several consortia interested in backing the club and that will bring a sense of relief to everyone."

The All Blacks face the ultimate humiliation tomorrow as form books show they are likely to lose the coveted Bledisloe Cup to Australia.

It would be their first loss at home to Australia in eight years, and the first time in 49 years they would have lost three consecutive tests in a season.

The All Blacks are effectively out of the Tri-Nations series already with losses to Australia and South Africa.