RFU chief executive Ian Ritchie has admitted that talks over expanding the Aviva Premiership is an issue that must be dealt with as a priority.

Premiership Rugby chief executive Mark McCafferty has previously revealed plans to add two more teams to the top flight of English rugby to take the division from 12 sides to 14 in time for the 2016-17 campaign.

A decision must be made prior to the start of next season so those competing know exactly what they are challenging for, and Ritchie says that he is ready to begin discussions over the groundbreaking change.

"It's not as simple as saying 'let's go from 12 to 14," the Daily Mail quotes him as saying. "We've not had or seen a formal proposition about this. I don't think anybody's suggesting it's a fait accompli.

"We have not had a formal sit down conversation with PRL (Premiership Rugby Ltd). I'm happy to sit down and do that. We all appreciate the urgency of it. We know it would be more than a little helpful to get this done in the next few months and I think there's a willingness to do that.

"It's important to resolve this. We will, with good will on both sides. I don't have any problem with the concept of 'should you examine change' and then 'is the change a good or a positive one?' There's a myriad of issues which I think are really significant. You need to go through all of those in some detail."

Should the change go ahead, a temporary suspension on promotion and relegation will be imposed.