By Zinzan Brooke Former All Black number eight

With five clubs battling to beat the drop, the prospect of relegation has provided the end of the season with some added spice.

Bath grabbed a vital win over London Irish at the weekend

You could see the desperation in the faces of the players and coaching staff of Bath and London Irish in their encounter at the weekend.

Bath may have just sneaked through that one, but I would still say that they look the most likely team to be playing Division One rugby next season.

But that is the tragedy of relegation - that a club like Bath, which is steeped in history, might be playing in a lower division.

And should the authorities decide to ring fence the Premiership next season, Bath, one of the most famous teams in the country, might be frozen out.

But having said that, without the incentive of promotion, Division One teams, like my own club Coventry, are reduced to the role of feeders for the Premiership sides.

None of it makes sense to me.

It would take a very loyal player to stand by their side if they were relegated

I favour the Premiership being expanded to 14 or 16 teams, with two teams promoted and two relegated at the end of the season.

Teams would only play each other once - and that should ease the pressure on the players who are playing too much rugby at the moment.

Whichever club does go down this season will face a battle to hold onto their international players.

Of course it depends on the state of the club financially, but from a practical point of view, the standard of Division One is not good enough for the top players.

It would take a very loyal player to stand by their side if they were relegated.

Bath snatch crucial win

And it could still be any one of five clubs that do go down, but despite their win over London Irish, I still believe that Bath are the most likely to drop.

They have lost the services of Mike Catt and Mike Tindall to injury for their final two games and I cannot see any other players coming to their rescue.