We have plans in mind which may be announced before the squad go to South Africa next week that will be to

"We have plans in mind, which may be announced before the squad go to South Africa next week, that will be to their benefit," he said.This season's squad are already expected to make £10,000 each, going up to £15,000 next season, according to RFU figures. One sponsor has already guaranteed the squad £5,000 apiece for the World Cup campaign, and there will be further money from sponsors and broadcasters, which means that any player in the squad from September 1994 through to March 1996 is guaranteed £30,000.Bishop did admit that the speed of events over the weekend rather caught him out. "I thought we were in an ongoing discussion actually," he explained. "I thought we might have seen Jack Rowell and Will Carling, but it all happened at a rate of knots."It was discussed on Friday evening, but there wasn't any formal vote or anything. The president did seek the views of the officers at the meeting, but it went apace. Everything happened quicker than I anticipated."My main aim as incoming president is to build a few bridges and to try to put this matter behind us. I feel that we must get together with the players and form a united front I think the players have felt that we have let them down.

The southern hemisphere have probably been closer to their players than we have been to ours."Bishop will be able to count on backing for his progressive outlook from the former England captain, Bill Beaumont, who joins the committee in July.Speaking on Radio Five Live yesterday, Beaumont said: "The demands on the modern player and also the popularity of the modern game have perhaps left the rest of officialdom behind. I think the important thing is that the players and the committee have to get a lot closer so they both understand the respective problems."n Billy Blythe, the Murrayfield prop, has been banned until 2000 by the Scottish Rugby Union following an off-the-ball incident in a match against Leith Academicals. The incident was not seen by the referee, and the SRU took the unprecedented step of taking evidence from spectators. Murrayfield were meeting last night to consider an appeal.n Christophe Deylaud, the French stand-off, is out of the World Cup after fracturing his thumb during the French championship on Saturday.. The Manchester United captain, Steve Bruce, returns to add experience to his team's vital championship match with Southampton tonight, vowing: "We want to take it into the weekend." The Old Trafford side know they have to win to retain any hope of overhauling Blackburn and completing a hat-trick of titles. Even then they would have to win at West Ham on Sunday and hope that Rovers slip up at Liverpool. But the 34-year-old Bruce, who returns in place of Sunday's goal-scoring hero against Sheffield Wednesday, David May, after missing two matches with a twisted nerve in his back, is determined to keep the double Double dream alive."It's imperative that we win," Bruce said.

"What you can be certain of is that we're going to go out and be positive, and hopefully that means we'll do enough to get the right result. If we can do that and take it up to the final day, then that would really be something special. It would certainly make it very interesting, and we know that anything could happen on the final day."The Blackburn manager, Kenny Dalglish, has talked about his side being the "people's champions", but Bruce, who has great sympathy for the injured May, thinks that at least football fans in general will be urging the champions on tonight."I'm sure all the neutral supporters will want it to go to the last day, because that would be something quite incredible," Bruce said. "Over the last few years it's been tied up before the last games, and the fact that we've taken it so far is a credit to everybody involved here."After we failed to beat Chelsea the other week it didn't look good, but then Manchester City did us a favour that night.

We can all look back and wonder 'if only', but there's no point."Bruce's return is one of two changes in the United line-up, the other seeing Nicky Butt returning for Paul Scholes in midfield. Ryan Giggs is still ruled out with a tight hamstring.But while United will be going all-out for victory, the Southampton manager, Alan Ball, has no intention of sending his team out merely as extras at a show put on for the Old Trafford fans.The Saints have lost just one of their last nine games while moving from the relegation zone up to 10th in the Premiership, and Ball promised his team would go out to entertain."Alex knows we won't be going out to destroy the situation or play defensively because we'll have a go at them," Ball said. "It's a great stage and a mouthwatering prospect, and one thing you can be certain of is that we'll make it into a football match."Ball is hopeful that Matthew Le Tissier, who missed Saturday's goalless draw at Everton with a heel injury, will be fit to return to the side.Le Tissier, who has scored 28 goals so far this season, travelled to Old Trafford with the Southampton squad yesterday, and Ball added: "The rest has done Matt good. It's helped him, but we'll leave the decision up to Matt himself. He'll have a fitness test before the game, and then we'll see how he is."If he is fit, Le Tissier will return in place of Tommy Widdrington, and Ball also adds the former Arsenal and England Under-21 winger, Neil Heaney, who has been out for two weeks with a calf-muscle strain, to his squad.n The former Wales manager, Terry Yorath, said yesterday that he had signed a contract with the Lebanese football association to train their national side. Yorath said he had signed an 18-month deal, and his role was to prepare the national side for the 1996 Pan Arab Games in Beirut as well as the Asian Cup the same year..