The Premiership “reset” now being talked about, possibly involving a 10-club league from 2024, does at least open up some possibilities, particularly as CVC has already lobbed more than £150m at the United Rugby Championship and £365m at the Six Nations. At last club games and internationals might just dovetail nicely, the season structure could cease to be a dog’s dinner and the top players would no longer be routinely flogged. But we have been highlighting those same issues for more than two decades. Ditto the need for a more vibrant domestic second tier, in which young English playing and coaching talent can be properly developed.
So to reach a point where other teams are starting to pick at the entrails of both clubs’ horror‑stricken squads and greedily eyeing extra slices of P-share pie is genuinely sad and an appalling look for the English game as a whole. Again, we all knew it was potentially coming. Remember that classic old cartoon where Wile E Coyote is nudged over a cliff by Road Runner and is briefly suspended in mid-air before gravity takes over? When costs and wages rise more steeply than revenue, a sharp descent inevitably follows.
Wasps, Tigers & Worcester fans offered deal by Coventry RugbyCoventry Rugby have extended a hand to Wasps, Leicester Tigers and Worcester Warriors fans ahead of their RFU Championship game against Cornish Pirates this weekend. They’ve announced a ‘Midlands offer’ of £5 tickets for season-ticket holders of the three Gallagher Premiership clubs, as Coventry take on the Pirates on Saturday, October 22 at the Butts Park Arena, kick off 3pm.
I’ve gone a bit greyer now. ”The majority of clubs would have disappeared long ago without the generosity of benefactors well aware they would never see a penny of profit in return. But where were the checks and balances regarding potential new owners, the insistence on sound, fully costed business plans or a concerted desire to strengthen the league’s weakest commercial links? All are now being proposed, with the stable door wide open and the horse already miles over the horizon. A penny, too, for the thoughts of the private equity bods at CVC, with their £200m Premiership investment not going terribly well.
How to watch Saracens vs Harlequins online and on TV todaySign up to our free sport newsletter for all the latest news on everything from cycling to boxingSign up to our free sport email for all the latest newsTwo years on from being relegated from the Gallagher Premiership for salary cap breaches and 12 months after earning promotion from the Championship, Saracens are back in a Premiership Rugby semi-final as they face Harlequins this afternoon. Sarries are hardly your normal newly-promoted club and their star-studded squad are seeking a fifth league title in eight years, with defending champions Quins standing between them and a place in next weekend’s Twickenham showpiece. Saracens finished second in the 2021-22 regular-season table behind only Leicester Tigers, and seven points ahead of today’s third-place opponents, to earn a 12th appearance in a Premiership semi-final. They have lost just one of their last seven league encounters to Harlequins, while their only defeat at StoneX Stadium to their London rivals came in the 2017 Anglo-Welsh Cup.
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The tragedy – and for once it is appropriate to use that word in this context – of Wasps and Worcester is that this essential truth was not addressed years ago. Flags and posters left by fans outside Worcester’s Sixways ground. Despite a lack of success on the field, the club had a huge place in the local community. Photograph: David Rogers/Getty ImagesBefore things can move forward, consequently, Premiership Rugby and the Rugby Football Union must collectively accept that dodgy owners, Covid-19, the dominance of Premier League football, concussion concerns and the cost of living crisis are not, ultimately, what has precipitated the current mess. If those in charge now cannot be blamed for longstanding governance failings, some of their predecessors should be experiencing deep shame.
[[TODAY]] Livestream: Wasps vs Saracens Live TV 26 November
Coventry currently sit sixth in the Championship, one place and three points ahead of the Pirates. A club statement read: “Dear Rugby Family, in an effort to help those that love our game, we warmly invite you to Butts Park – we would like to offer Season Ticket holders of Wasps, Worcester Warriors and Leicester Tigers the chance to come to our fixture against Cornish Pirates for £5. READ NEXT:Wasps stars Launchbury & Willis attract Prem clubs, others seek France moves “We want to give you the chance to watch the game you love, live in the Midlands. ” Wasps became the second Premiership club to enter administration this season, as on Monday t hey announced the news that 167 players, coaches and staff have been made redundant including ex-CEO Stephen Vaughan. There’s some hope that the Wasps name can be salvaged but the current outlook looks bleak for the club, as is the case for Worcester Warriors who played their last game on the opening day of the season.
Those of us who reported on the demise of Richmond and London Scottish in 1999 are certainly entitled to ask why decent folk are still being so brutally shafted. I have never forgotten asking Bristol’s then director of rugby, Peter Thorburn, how he felt as his club neared financial meltdown in 2003. “It’s no use worrying about it, not in public anyway. You do that in bed at night, ” the seasoned Kiwi said. “I was quite proud of the fact I had bugger-all grey hair when I came over.
Sad implosion of Wasps and Worcester must be warning call for English rugby | Robert KitsonWe could start with the sheer catastrophic waste of it all. All those years, all those hundreds of millions of pounds squandered. All the fudged decisions and fingers‑crossed accounting. The oceans of bullshit, the overflowing reservoirs of self‑interest. And yet that’s still not the most upsetting element. Worse is the numbing pain for everyone associated with two disintegrating clubs and the human cost of English rugby’s days of reckoning. There will be some looking at the travails of Wasps and Worcester and giving a resigned shrug.
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Wasps Vs Worcester Warriors at Coventry Building Society Arena 23rd Apr 2022Road to Marseille: Lyon 7 months ago by Ultimate Rugby With Lyon having reached their maiden European final by advancing to the EPCR Challenge Cup showpiece, we look back at how they secured their clash with RC Toulon at Stade Vélodrome in Marseille... Preview: Wasps bid to halt Lyon’s winning run Wasps will need to halt Lyon’s six-match winning streak in the EPCR Challenge Cup this season in the clubs’ first ever meeting in Europe if they are to progress to their second final in the... Premiership: Looking ahead to Round 23 8 months ago by Ultimate Rugby After a fortnight’s break in observation of the Champions and Challenge Cups, the Premiership is back in action, kicking off with two big clashes as Bristol Bears tackle Gloucester at Ashton Gate...
That makes them big favourites to advance to Rugby HQ next Saturday, although their opponents delighted in upsetting the odds en route to a shock Gallagher Premiership title 12 months ago. Here’s everything you need to know ahead of the first Premiership Rugby semi-final. When is Saracens vs Harlequins? The match will be played at the StoneX Stadium in north London, on Saturday 11 June at 1:30pm BST. Where can I watch it? The match will be shown on BT Sport 1, with coverage starting at 1pm. BT Sport subscribers can also stream the match live on the BT Sport website and mobile app. What is the team news? Saracens: Goode; Maitland, Daly, Tompkins, Malins; Farrell (capt), Davies; M Vunipola, George, Koch, Itoje, Swinson, McFarland, Earl, B Vunipola.
Those two developments mean Leicester will go nearly a month without playing any Premiership rugby. They were due to host Wasps at Mattioli Woods Welford Road on Sunday, a game which has since been cancelled, before their scheduled league bye week. Their next fixture was the visit of Worcester Warriors on Saturday, November 5, which has also cancelled - pushing the reigning champions' next home league game out to the visit of London Irish on Sunday, November 27. For any Worcester fans taking up Coventry’s offer will see at least one familiar face in Will Chudley, the ex-Warriors scrum-half who Coventry signed following the club’s demise could make his debut this weekend. Cov have served up plenty of entertaining so far this season, with their last game being a 46-32 victory at London Scottish.
Instead they chose to operate on the refreshing basis that generosity of spirit costs nothing. Which is why, when they won all those big shiny trophies in the professional era, there was such a feelgood vibe attached. Worcester Warriors were less successful on the field but were totally embedded in their community. The late Cecil Duckworth poured his heart and soul into the place and the bond between players and fans remained strong right to the end.
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Wasps vs Warriors: LIVE updates from the Ricoh Arena in the Gallagher PremiershipLive: Wasps 13 vs 3 Warriors Wasps: 15 Charlie Atkinson, 14 Zach Kibirige, 13 Paolo Odogwu, 12 Malakai Fekitoa, 11 Josh Bassett, 10 Jacob Umaga, 9 Dan Robson; 1 Tom West, 2 Gabriel Oghre, 3 Biyi Alo, 4 Will Rowlands, 5 James Gaskell, 6 Ben Morris, 7 Thomas Young, 8 Brad Shields.
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Of course they were spending beyond their means. Of course that couldn’t go on indefinitely. Of course fingers should be pointed at the stewardship of both businesses. But fundamentally this is about people – specifically the umpteen players, coaches, staff and fans let down by those meant to have their best interests at heart. A touch emotive? Damn right. Decades ago, I was a frequent visitor to Wasps’ old home at Repton Avenue in Sudbury and grew to recognise many of the qualities that define a great rugby club. Wasps didn’t have much but they were the most welcoming club in London. They didn’t mind where you came from or care what you did for a living.
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