The twin honours of the Irish captaincy in the impending Six Nations and a second Lions tour are looming yet. "I'm searching for as many compromises as possible," he says.Only players of the stature of Wood and Dallaglio are able to take matters into their own hands. Dallaglio's boss at Wasps, Nigel Melville, not only took his star player's absence on the chin, but led calls for a minimum rest period of 10 weeks during the summer.It is a view Wood endorses. "If you know you are to have a weekend off, as Harlequins have given me on occasions, the quality of your training improves considerably. But what we really want is to recharge the batteries properly during the summer. The only way that can happen is with a minimum rest period, and fewer fixtures overall."Neither Harlequins nor Ireland want a whacked-out Wood, but without a statutory break, there is only one answer "I'll take a rest wherever I can get it," said Wood. "But if the club are in a hole in the Premiership, I won't be missing out." While the Irish RFU sensibly seek to limit their players' commitments further next season, Wood has already taken part in 16 matches for Quins, with the prospect of up to 12 more to come."Ireland have an ideal situation," he says.

"Club rugby is of a much lower standard than in England, and nowhere near as commercially-minded. They also have significantly fewer players over there, so they must make sure the best are not overplayed, that they stay available for their country for the next five or six years."Wood refuses to talk of himself as a shoo-in for the Lions. Yet he is an obvious candidate, not only to add to his two Tests from 1997, but to emulate Karl Mullen and Ciaran Fitzgerald as Irish hookers who captained the tourists. All being well, he will add to his 41 Ireland caps when the Six Nations kicks off against Italy in Rome on 3 February.Wood has lost to the Azzurri three times in the past, but points out: "We beat them handily enough last year [60-21 in Dublin]. I think they lostthe run of themselves a bitafter beating Scotland." The emergence of Brian O'Driscoll has raised expectations that the Irish have a set of backs to go with a useful-looking pack, but Wood urges caution "We still need to improve on our consistency.

Everyone remem-bers our win in France last year [when O'Driscoll scored three tries], but we played poorly at other times."Whichever colours you pin to your mast during the Six Nations, let's hope Keith Wood's are still flying come the summer.. The fat lady seemed to be clearing her throat, but those waiting for a conclusion to the dispute over promotion and relegation between England's top clubs must bide their time. The protracted argument, which has caused the Rugby Football Union to withhold millions of pounds of funding from the twelve Zurich Premiership sides, is unlikely to be concluded when the Second Division clubs meet at Bedford on Thursday. The fat lady seemed to be clearing her throat, but those waiting for a conclusion to the dispute over promotion and relegation between England's top clubs must bide their time. The protracted argument, which has caused the Rugby Football Union to withhold millions of pounds of funding from the twelve Zurich Premiership sides, is unlikely to be concluded when the Second Division clubs meet at Bedford on Thursday. Peace was at hand earlier this week when the Premiership accepted the relegation set-up of one up, one down for the next two seasons and a play-off in the two years thereafter. English First Division Rugby claimed it represented a concession on their part, when they were first offered five years with no relegation at all in the Rob Andrew Plan last year. Their mantra, as expressed by one wealthy club owner recently, is "relegation is liquidation".The leading dozen, however, have not always been united, unlike the Second Division, who have consistently spoken with one voice and usually that of their chairman, the Worcester owner Cecil Duckworth.

They point out that the rump of the English game voted for two up, two down at last summer's annual meeting of the Rugby Football Union. They also oppose the RFU's suggestion that a £750,000 parachute payment to the club relegated from the Premiership should come from Second Division funds. The lower tier have collectively received £3 million a year for the last three seasons. They may yet conclude that their share of the television contract currently being negotiated by the RFU - five per cent of the First Division's take plus a probable top-up from the Union - will prove to be the basis of an agreement.The whole structure of the top end of the English game will be open to review when the Leicester Agreement runs out this summer.

So everyone is jockeying for position.Having made his millions in the boiler business, Duckworth knows a cold snap when he sees one, and is currently on a break in Barbados. In his absence, the Second Division's representative at Twickenham last Thursday for an informal meeting was Henley's director of rugby, Tony McArthur. Ironically, Henley, a go-ahead club in their own right, do not share Duckworth's quest for the Holy Grail. "The RFU promised each Premiership club £2m a season," McArthur said.