PREMIERSHIP WANT TO PROBE CLUB FINANCES

PREMIERSHIP RUGBY are seeking greater access to clubs’ accounts, as they attempt to establish the scale of the top division’s financial crisis.

The league’s chief executive Simon Massie-Taylor, asked if the plight of Worcester and Wasps was the tip of the iceberg, said: ‘We’ve got to have the ability around club finances to answer that question. It’s always been that we haven’t had full oversight, so I am flying blind.’ Clubs have shied away from financial transparency in the past, but Massie-Taylor said: ‘Things have changed. No one wants to see a situation we’re in now with two clubs struggling.’