It will be all year round rugby at Coundon Road if a bright new idea works out.

Coventry Football Club, a rugby union stronghold, proposes to run a rugby league team during the summer to keep the club afloat financially.

The idea stems from Alan Robinson, who formerly played rugby league for Great Britain Students and Featherstone Rovers.

He says:

"This area is a rugby union stronghold but there are two regional leagues in my sport and we hope to launch our team in May in the Rugby League Conference. There will be no overlap with the rugby union season because the Conference fixtures end in August.

"We shall be playing against teams like Leicester, Cheltenham, Gloucester and Worcester and I am inviting anyone who wants to play rugby league to come along for training and coaching. It does not matter whether they have ever played before."

Coventry have welcomed the idea. Ian Carvell, join general manager and rugby union administrator at the Coundon Road club said:

"Alan came to us and we liked the package he proposed. Rugby League is a summer sport now and there is increasing links between union and league.

"It maybe some of our union players will play league in the summer and who knows what level we shall have reached in a few years time; we might even have Wigan and Leeds down here."