London Irish to be suspended
Premiership club face 4pm deadline for financial plans Championship sides ask for funding to sign Exiles players
London Irish are set to be suspended by the Rugby Football Union tomorrow, leaving their players scrambling for employment ahead of next season.
The chaos has also led to calls from Championship clubs for English rugby union executives to heed the “wake-up call” and seize the opportunity to strengthen the second tier with more generous funding in an attempt to accommodate the Irish players and solidify the league structure.
Irish have been asked to outline their plans before 4pm today to the RFU’S financial viability group, who will meet and make a recommendation to the union’s board before an official announcement tomorrow.
In scenes grimly familiar to those encountered by the squads of Worcester Warriors and Wasps months ago, each individual at Irish faces different circumstances. Though some are certain to be recruited within weeks, others have been making personal calls and emails. Telegraph Sport understands that England wing Henry Arundell and World Cup hopeful Tom Pearson have both received at least four expressions of interest from Premiership sides.
Arundell, the explosive 20-yearold who made his first Test start against Ireland during the recent Six Nations, is believed to have provisional offers from France, with multiple Top 14 clubs in the running, as well as South Africa.
All-action back-rower Pearson and club captain Matt Rogerson, who are in contention for England’s training camps this summer, could also benefit from the fact that Northampton Saints are in the market for a back-five forward after Lukhan Salakaia-loto left for Australia last week. Harlequins and Bath are two others said to be “respectfully keeping tabs on the situation” at Irish.
Ben White, the Scotland scrumhalf, could head to a United Rugby Championship franchise north of the border. Ben Loader, Will Joseph and Ollie Hoskins appear to have Premiership options.
Many clubs have already spent up to budget for next season. As in the case of Worcester and Wasps folding last season, there will be no scope for salary-cap exemptions as a special measure.
A number of Irish players are aiming for roles in the Championship. Brochures and individual CVS are known to have been circulated to Championship clubs by agencies over the past few days, detailing clients who will be seeking employment. Telegraph Sport understands there have also been emails and phone calls made to potential recruiters in the Championship by Irish players. A Championship source suggested governing bodies could act constructively at this time.
“This has to be a wake-up call,” they said. “Through unfortunate circumstances, the Premiership looks like it is going to get to 10 teams. Why not take this opportunity to fund Championship teams better so they can have a stronger second tier as well?
“I would love to take on a few of the players I have been offered. But how can I do that without additional finances from the RFU?”
It is remarkable to consider it is not yet two years since the Rugby Football Union voted to approve the expansion of the Premiership to 14 clubs.
The historic vote by the governing body’s council in late June 2021 rubber-stamped the “Covid Recovery Plan”, including the suspension of promotion and relegation for the 2023-24 season.
The RFU said it hoped the structural changes would “improve the financial stability and sustainability of professional rugby during the next three seasons while also providing benefits for England and the community game”.
Then the sad demise of Wasps and Worcester Warriors early this season reduced the league to 11 clubs. That figure is now expected to drop to 10 tomorrow with the news that London Irish are set to be suspended unless they meet today’s RFU deadline.
The RFU has asked Irish to demonstrate that either their takeover, by a US consortium, is viable or that Mick Crossan, the owner, is prepared and able to fund the club through next season by 4pm today. Failure to do so will end in suspension from competition. Only on Friday, the RFU was said to have seen “zero progression” with the deal.
If London Irish are suspended, plans for a 10-team Premiership will be fast-tracked for approval by the same RFU Council next month that 24 months earlier had signed off on 14.
And yet, while no one wanted to get to this point in such a horrific and costly manner, a 10-team league is now seen as the optimal size for the competition. That would be the case even if Wasps, Worcester and London Irish were in rude financial health and Ealing and Jersey owned stadiums with capacities of over 10,000.
There is a perception, an unfair one, that Premiership Rugby was secretly pleased to see Wasps and Worcester (and likely London Irish) go to the wall because it could allow it to accelerate those plans to reduce the league to 10 teams by a season.
What has yet to be fully explained is how and why this reduced format is now seen as the league structure that will breathe life back into the English club game when the 14-team league was heralded as the way forward less than two years ago.
It is a journey that began in February last year. Simon Massietaylor, who had been appointed as the Premiership Rugby chief executive in the previous month, was tasked with drawing up a new strategic plan for the league.
Along with Martyn Phillips, Premiership Rugby’s new chairman and former chief executive of the Welsh Rugby Union, the pair set about asking fundamental, even existential questions.
Could the “product” be improved to get it to a better place or was the model broken beyond repair? The answer was clear. The possibility of sparking the league back into life with a couple of defibrillator pads was not deemed likely to be successful.
A huge piece of work was carried out and the answer consistently came back that a 13-team league (as it was then) did not work.
There were too many games that overlapped with internationals; clubs were not seeing enough of their England players; players were probably playing too much rugby, which was increasing the risk of injury; supporters were frustrated at not seeing their Test stars in action for their clubs and even when they were, they were at times not the “best version of themselves” for key games.
The decision to reduce the league to 10 clubs would, in an instant, remove the overlaps between the Premiership and the international Test windows, increasing the number of games England players will be available for their clubs.
As one insider close to the strategic review said, it would “put a premium on quality, not quantity. We would become the only league in the world that would say: ‘We are finally going to play less rugby’.
“If you’ve got 10 teams, the chances are you’ve got a concentration of players and coaches in those 10 teams. They should be high quality games.
“They should be well-attended games, and games broadcasters would be very interested in from a supporter point of view, you’re not having to be made to choose between international and Premiership games.
“Then there is the player welfare side of it, you can build proper loading, around playing and recovery, and perhaps most importantly you are removing conflict from the system. Rather than fight for players and eyeballs between club and country, we can move forward and grow the game together in an aligned season.”
If the financial turmoil of the past 12 months has proved anything, it is that the status quo is not working, underscoring the need to try something radical.
One of the biggest stumbling blocks however was to convince the clubs that it is in their best interests to give up a number of home fixtures that remain the lifeblood in terms of revenue for Premiership clubs.
Losing three home games is likely to be worth a £1million in lost revenue, and although a 10-team league would mean clubs receiving more central funding from the RFU, that would be a marginal figure. Central to this strategy is to ensure there is no more creep from the international game, aside from calls for a fourth Test match in the November window for the new world league blueprint that will bring a northern versus southern hemisphere “grand final” every two years.
Too many club games overlapped with international matches and players were probably playing too much rugby