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Aviva Premiership clubs have backed plans to include the four regions in an Anglo-Welsh league next year, according to Leicester Tigers boss Peter Tom.

The English clubs, who will not be playing in the Heineken Cup next season, will have nine weekends of rugby to fill next year and expanding the Premiership seems the obvious way to fill that schedule.

Tom claims an Anglo-Welsh league has been discussed and also backed by the Premiership's clubs.

"The Welsh regions are all very keen to be competing in the Aviva Premiership from next season," Tom told the Rugby Paper.

"We have discussed the matter at board level and given it our unanimous approval. The Welsh teams are 100% solid in their desire to join forces with us. They see the restoration of the traditional fixtures with the English clubs as the most effective way of bringing back the crowds they've lost in recent seasons.

"We cannot march the Welsh teams to the top of the hill and drop them. The regions are fighting for their very existence but this isn't a one-way street. Every English club wants to fill its stadium and there's no question that the Welsh teams will give the Premiership a new dimension."

The regions, who stood alongside the English clubs in backing the breakaway Rugby Champions Cup before the WRU entered them into the Heineken Cup, will meet with the union on Wednesday in an attempt to solve a row over their right to play in cross-border competition.

"Clearly there are issues, not least between the Welsh regions and their Union," Tom added. "Even so, there is more than a possibility that it will happen otherwise we wouldn't have wasted time talking about it in the boardroom. I'm not a lawyer but based on our conversations with the Welsh, they appear to have a very strong case, assuming they decide to take legal action."

This revelation comes after former Wales coach Nigel Davies insists "shocking apathy" could see the regions quit the Pro 12 and join the English system.

The Gloucester boss, who says the WRU should back the regions in joining the Aviva Premiership, said: “The apathy within the game in Wales to do anything about it is shocking."

He said: "If it were done through the Welsh Rugby Union, possibly there would not be such damage.

"But would such a thing happen through them? Probably not.

"So you're probably looking at some sort of breakaway which would have a significantly detrimental effect on the game in Wales."