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Promotion to the Premiership may be decided off the field at the end of this month as Ealing Trailfinders and Doncaster wait to discover if they will qualify for entry into the expanded top division.
Ealing and Doncaster are the only two clubs who have applied to go up from the 11-team Championship. Doncaster are leading the second-tier table but Trailfinders are level on points and the west London club have two games in hand.
While Jersey and Cornish Pirates are close behind in third and fourth, neither club has designs on joining the elite at this stage.
The prospect of a Premiership expansion to 14 teams is on a knife-edge, amid an acute lack of clarity relating to the revised minimum standards criteria which must be satisfied to gain entry.
Ealing and Doncaster are waiting to discover if they will qualify for entry into the Premiership
Ealing and Doncaster are understood to have submitted applications at the start of last month.
Both clubs are proposing to expand their grounds, in stages, although it is unclear if this will satisfy the RFU, who oversee the assessments. Saracens were given dispensation to re-enter the
