It's crunch time - again!

All the debating is due to end with yet another meeting of the premier clubs to try and come up with their five teams.

And then tonight comes the crunch when WRU/Millennium Stadium chief David Moffett puts his four provinces idea or five clubs, assuming the clubs finally agree, to the WRU general committee.

The committee will decide which plan to put forward to an extraordinary meeting of all 239 clubs on February 23. All the signs are it will be Moffett's four-team provincial plan. The only agreement in a debate which shifts from day to day is in Gwent.

Newport and Ebbw Vale have long since come to an arrangement to combine.

Respective owners Tony Brown and Marcus Russell have buried the hatchet after Brown was sensationally locked out of the Vale ground last season.

They are both adamant the only way ahead is for four teams and insist that Welsh rugby can't afford any more.

There has been barely a flicker of opposition to the top two Gwent clubs combining, though matters like venue, name, colours, coaches and playing and administrative staff are a long way from being sorted.

Everything at the professional end in Gwent is harmonious, so much so that Brown and Russell have been absent from all the talks this week because they consider they have more important things to attend to.

Elsewhere, however, it is far from friendly as the clubs in Glamorgan and West Wales cannot agree on anything.

In the past few days alone the ground has shifted amazingly. It goes something like this: Against such a complicated background 13th hour talks were being held today in an effort to find some late unity.

The alternative is being forced to accept four provinces next season recommended by a patient Moffett to the WRU tonight.

And, just to complicate the issue even more, there is evidence from the body of Welsh clubs that even if five super clubs are recommended as the way ahead, next month's extraordinary meeting will throw it out...