Gloucester head coach Dean Ryan has promised to escalate English rugby's civil war should Olly Morgan, Mike Tindall or Luke Narraway not be included in the England squad for Saturday's Six Nations Championship opener with Italy.

With the Rugby Football Union and Premier Rugby Limited in dispute about fixture restructuring for next season, Gloucester were denied the three players for Saturday's 23-21 Guinness Premiership victory over London Irish.

Ryan claims England should release any player who is not needed for the Six Nations opener.

He said: "I will be very interested to see if my three are in the 22 – and if they are not I will be questioning why they didn't come back. We were told the 22 were not available for this weekend. Those not involved are supposed to come home. I am assuming my three are in the 22 (against Italy).

"I will take it up with Premier Rugby. We have to think about the integrity of the competition. There's an agreement in place."

Ryan said he had no problems with Irish having Nick Kennedy and Delon Armitage available, after England deemed the pair needed to improve their match fitness.

"That's not an issue. It is an issue when any club, us or anyone else, who has not had access to their players who then don't play," added the Gloucester boss.

"I don't have a problem with Delon playing and improving his fitness then going back in. That's the right way to pick an England team. I have a huge problem if it is at the expense of Morgan in the 22."

But the RFU responded in a statement, saying: "Under the new RFU/PRL agreement, the RFU is required to select a provisional 22-man England squad on the Tuesday prior to the week of each Test match.

"Those players not selected and not required to cover for any injury concerns the England team manager may have are required to be released back to their clubs the following Tuesday (ie. the Tuesday of each Test week).

"A provisional 22-man squad was selected last Tuesday (January 27). The England team manager has the right to retain players if there are injury concerns or release players to play for their clubs when it is in a player's interest to have more game time. The clubs are aware that all 32 of the senior EPS may be away for the whole of this period.

"The same provisions apply in 'fallow' weeks during the Six Nations. All 32 senior EPS players will be unavailable for their clubs in the 'fallow' weeks, unless released to play at the discretion of the England team manager."

"This weekend the RFU voluntarily released three EPS players for club duty whom it felt would benefit from further game time (Delon Armitage, Nick Kennedy and Mathew Tait)."

Ryan was pleased with Gloucester's response against London Irish after slumping out of the Heineken Cup with back-to-back defeats to Cardiff and Biarritz.

"The players did themselves enormous credit. I am proud of that group that they answered in the right way," said Ryan.

"You cannot hide from pressure. We are not playing at our best rugby but at the same time we are sat at the top of the league. In moments on my own, I find that quite amusing.

"There's everyone around screaming for us to play more but we have to play at the right times and in the right areas. The kicking today was excellent. If you look at the London Irish away fixture, in December, we lost the kicking game significantly – but today we won that, and it was fundamental in giving us opportunities."