ENGLAND'S National League rugby union clubs, including Worcester, have rejected the latest proposals for promotion to the Premiership.

An automatic promotion place for the next two seasons, with a play-off to follow in the three years after that, had been agreed by the Premiership clubs and the Rugby Football Union.

However, English Second Division Rugby (ESDR), the umbrella body for National League One clubs, do not believe the proposals offer them enough.

With Premiership clubs desperate for funding of £1.8million per year from the RFU, which it had been agreed would start at the beginning of the present campaign, a final solution to the promotion problem is becoming increasingly important.

Worcester owner Cecil Duckworth, whose club are involved in a fierce battle with Leeds for the National League title, is on the brink of taking court action over the decision to revoke the two-up, two-down ideal which the RFU originally backed.

An ESDR statement said: "It was unanimously agreed that though there appear to be many positive aspects to the proposed new agreement, there remain areas with which ESDR continues to have difficulties and would find hard to justify to the rest of the game, such as giving up the right to automatic promotion to the winner of the division."

Included among three counter-proposals put forward by ESDR are automatic promotion of one-up, one-down to be enshrined for the length of the agreement.

English Second Division Rugby have also called for the present funding levels to be maintained and parachute payments for relegated clubs to be made from RFU or Premiership coffers.