WELSH rugby is heading for a huge impasse as the great debate on the future of the game at the top end rages on.

Meetings held at the highest level this week involving the Welsh Rugby Union, the nine premier clubs and the six involved in the Premier Rugby Partnership have got nowhere.

In fact, all the signs point to there being a stalemate, with the status quo remaining or the WRU trying to impose a structure which will lead to civil war.

Wales coach Graham Henry and the WRU are now in favour of four or five teams representing Wales in the Heineken Cup and Celtic League competitions.

The four would be district teams and the five would be super clubs.

But in both cases the players would be centrally contracted, controlled by the WRU who would decide what players the districts or clubs would have, when and where they would play, also taking over their salaries.

The problem with that is clubs yesterday came out against central contracts.

At the moment the clubs have all the leading players under contract, and owners and benefactors are not prepared to give their players up to the WRU.

If the WRU did gain control of the leading players that would result in benefactors walking away from the game.

So that is impasse number one. Impasse number two comes with the inability to reach a compromise over a higher number of teams at the top end of the game.

Seven or eight clubs at the top level would be one way out, but the six who make up the Premier Rugby Partnership of Wales are against that.

The six - Newport, Cardiff, Swansea, Llanelli, Bridgend and Pontypridd - believe there is insufficient money available to keep any more afloat.

The whole business looks like a mess with little or no sign of any progress.

Sir Tasker Watkins' report into the future of the game is likely to shed little light.

Though it will come out in favour of rugby in Wales being club-based, it is believed the report is more concerned about the future structure of the WRU than the number of clubs.