EBBW Vale rugby chief Marcus Russell says he is planning for next season on the basis the side will not be relegated from the Welsh Premier Division.

The Welsh Rugby Union have still not announced a decision on whether the club will go down after finishing bottom of the table.

They promised a review at the end of a season in which wrong guidelines issued by the governing body meant 16 games featured ineligible players.

The 16 Premier clubs have said they will not recognise relegation and legal action has been threatened, but still the WRU remain silent on the issue.

However, Russell told the Argus today: "We are working on the basis that there is no relegation. I am completely confident of that. If we were going to be relegated, we would have heard by now.

"We are moving forward on that basis and aiming to build on our squad from last season.

"The players have been very positive. They feel they have a job to finish at Ebbw Vale, and that's nice to know.

"Wherever you finish in the league, certain players will leave for whatever reason, but most of them want to stay and build on last season and we are just carrying on."

Russell said he did not blame any individual for the administrative errors of last season, but added: "It certainly was not the clubs' fault. Everyone acted in good faith."

Regarding finishing bottom, he said: "Any one of five clubs could have ended holding everybody else up and it happened to be us, but we did not feel we were cast adrift from any other teams.

"We put 11 games down that could affect us and said just one of those 11 needs to go our way, but every one went against us.

"That's why people love sport, but sitting and watching those games unfold was a bit like Chinese torture. "But we shouldn't have been relying on other fixtures in the first place."