Premiership clubs have blocked an initial Rugby Football Union (RFU) proposal to allow Phil Morrow to retain his role as Saracens’ performance director after being appointed England’s head of performance, Telegraph Sport understands.

On Thursday, clubs voted 7-3 against the arrangement at a meeting of Premiership Rugby’s investor board in the presence of England head coach Steve Borthwick. Efforts are being made to find a compromise but there is entrenched opposition from certain clubs to the potential conflict of interest that could occur if Morrow were chosen to replace Aled Walters.

Under the new Professional Game Partnership, Borthwick – and by extension Morrow – would have “final say” on sports science and medical issues as well oversight of individual development programmes.

Telegraph Sport can reveal that a “firewall” was proposed that would give Morrow access to the strength and conditioning data of England players only during the periods internationals were played. When he returned to his role at Saracens, he would no longer be able to access such data.

‘It is ridiculous’

However, that plan drew short shrift from one senior club figure, who said: “You would have to be naive in the extreme to think he and Steve are not going to have conversations outside of those periods, otherwise why are we collecting all this data? You do not bring in a guy to head up your performance programme and then not give him the information he needs.

“The RFU have made this big fuss about gaining medical control and having access to all the S and C data and they genuinely think we believe they will hire someone who does not have access to none of that information? It is ridiculous.”

Some clubs are more ambivalent about the proposal. Bristol Bears are understood to be supportive, subject to receiving further information. But most clubs are deeply uneasy about an arrangement that would make Morrow one of the most influential figures in Saracens’ and England’s camps.

On Wednesday,  Mark McCall, Saracens director of rugby, said he hoped a resolution would be found this week. However, his “small mindedness” remark about blocking the Morrow two jobs arrangement was not well received within the league.

‘Competitive advantage’ for Saracens

Further talks are scheduled for next week but one senior executive believes the only way Morrow can join the England set up is by the RFU buying him out of the four-year contract he recently signed with Saracens.

“I have no issue with him going there, but if the RFU want him so badly then they need to recruit him full time,” a source said. “At the moment, it feels like Saracens are trying to have their cake and eat it if he goes into a high-performance environment where ultimately he has got visibility over the best of the best. That gives Saracens a competitive advantage.”

England had hoped Morrow would be in place for a three-day training camp next week, although that will focus more on alignment than on strength and conditioning. They will need a figure in place to fill Walters’ shoes in time for the training camp that begins  n Girona on Oct 21.

Telegraph Sport revealed last week that Morrow was primary target for Borthwick, who worked under him for three years as a player at Saracens. Morrow joined Saracens in 2011, having been head of fitness at Ireland, a role that Walters has been appointed to.

Gloucester’s Dan Tobin will replace Tom Tombleson as strength and conditioning coach while Joe El-Abd has been appointed to replace Felix Jones as defence coach. He will combine his responsibilities with his role as Oyonnax’s director of rugby until the end of the season.