Among rugby's assorted pundits, or "fibre-tipped assassins" to quote Max Boyce, this is the time for fearless predictions. So here is mine: this season will mark the end of an era - not for all-conquering Leicester, necessarily, but for the wider English professional game. Anyone in authority with the slightest bit of vision should feel the same way.

For, as we all salivate about the headline issues - are England building towards World Cup victory? Is James Simpson-Daniel an emerging global star? - only incurable optimists can dispense with the familiar nagging caveat. Give or take the paltry three-week rest pencilled in for England's World Cup elite next summer, the new season for many Test players will effectively last two years. For every gallant individual still standing by June 2004, a further 10 will be consulting their surgeons. It cannot go on and, deep down, every administrator, coach and physio out there knows it.

How wonderful, then, if this really were to be the last of the marathon slogs to which English rugby, in particular, has become addicted. Tomorrow it will be confirmed that the Zurich championship play-offs are to be condensed to three teams, thus shortening the season by a week. With the World Cup next year, barely an international player will be sighted by his club between June and early December. Domestic league games will continue, of course, because the clubs need some income but, as we speak, the powers of Premier Rugby are discussing alternative strategies. If they think about it, they will sense the chance to kill two important birds with one very user-friendly stone.

Consider the following scenario. Fourteen professional sides - the current 12 plus the two leading sides in National League One - could be split into two conferences of seven clubs playing each other home and away, guaranteeing 12 games for each club up to the end of November. The top two in each pool would advance to semi-finals followed by a pre-Christmas grand final. Hey presto, a meaningful, highly competitive, broadcaster-friendly tournament would have been settled inside four months. The leading eight sides would duly qualify for a slightly expanded Heineken Cup, the rest entering the Parker Pen Challenge Cup. Follow that with the newly abbreviated Six Nations, round off with the Heineken knock-out phases and the finale of a domestic knock-out trophy and a clearly defined, exciting season could be done by mid-May. Too good to be true? It depends whom you speak to.

As far as the players' union's chief executive Damian Hopley is concerned, such innovative ideas should be embraced: "I'm a fan of conferences. Less is more... the bigger events are what the crowds and the players want. They want more of a sense of occasion and more meaningful games."

In the opposite corner sits Premier Rugby's chief executive Howard Thomas, who feels too many people protest too much. "Out of 590 players last season only nine in the whole country touched the maximum 32 games. There was a post-Lions tour hangover but I don't think we have overplayed players. It's a mathematical equation. We have to make sure the clubs are viable. To increase to 14 would mean a real increase in revenue to maintain the level of income for each club."

The two execs can always argue the toss over a latte at their unlikely new shared premises above a branch of Starbucks in Richmond. Bottom lines apart, however, Premier Rugby cannot risk a repeat of the promotion-relegation saga that disfigured the end of last season.

For the record - does this sound familiar? - there will definitely be automatic relegation for the bottom side in this season's Premiership. There is also a review to determine if, in future, a play-off might be a better idea. Thomas, though, is already saying it would be "a tragedy" if a big club were to go down, which suggests the whole ticklish issue may yet reignite.

So stand by, once again, not just for rising crowd figures but more club v country rows and disturbing fitness bulletins. Wish the long-term injured such as Dan Luger and Iain Balshaw all the best and let no one claim that quality rugby and a fixture schedule as thick as War and Peace go hand in hand.

And if you are still wondering who will win the big stuff, how about Gloucester for the Zurich Premiership and England to win a Six Nations grand slam as well as the World Cup? The end of an era? Wait and see.