THE rugby merger war is taking a sinister turn, with Newport Rugby Club admitting death threats have been received on its website.

And millionaire rugby club owner, Tony Brown, (pictured) yesterday told the Argus he had received hate mail over the controversial merger with Ebbw Vale.

The Newport benefactor said he had not received death threats - but "unpleasant letters" had been sent to him as a result of the merger plan.

But John Page, administrator for the official Newport RFC website Black & Ambers Online, said there had been attempts to post death threats on the site - and these were forwarded to the police.

Mr Page posted a message at the weekend, in response an inquiry from a Newport fan alarmed by a report that Mr Brown had received hate mail from diehards enraged by the Ebbw Vale merger plan.

He stated: "Black & Ambers Online receives a considerable amount of electronic hate mail every day. Sad to say these have included death threats in the past."

It is against the law to publish threatening or defamatory statements on the Internet - and Mr Page added all hate mail had been passed on to the police for investigation.

Mr Brown said he had not personally received any death threats.

"It's true that I've had some unpleasant letters, but I've not received anything that could be called a death threat," he said.

Newport's backer admitted he sometimes found it hard to sleep at night, saying: "This has been the most difficult time since I arrived at Newport, but that is much more to do with the difficulty of coming to some resolution over the club's future than it's the result of any unpleasant mail."

He praised the kindness and generosity of most Newport fans - but said he could not deny that opinion about the merger was sharply divided supporters.

"There are some who have sent very pleasant and supportive letters, but I have also received things saying that I will go down in history as the man who sold Newport rugby down the river."

Club chairman David Watkins said that no members of the board had received any intimidating messages and that he had not been informed about the e-mails sent to the website.

"At the end of the day, it's only a game and things like this are wildly off the mark. This is taking support far too far. It strikes me as frankly preposterous for anyone to talk about issuing death threats"