The fate of Worcester and Wasps mirrors that of Richmond and London Scottish in 1999 and shows that the current structure of the professional game in England is unsustainable
In many ways English club rugby history is simply repeating itself. For Worcester and Wasps read Richmond and London Scottish at the end of the last century, evocative old names for whom the financial bell tolled abruptly. “We’re almost in exactly the same space as we were in 1999 – apart from the fact there are extra noughts on the end,” suggests Richmond’s former chairman Peter Moore. “Otherwise it’s the same result: almost everybody’s still losing money.”
Has the English game learned anything? If so, it is not yet glaringly apparent. Plenty of people, for example, are already making confident noises about two leagues of 10 – a Premiership 1 and Premiership 2 – from 2024‑25 without explaining how the secondary half of that equation can be funded. At the very least it will require a fundamental overhaul, of governance and how Premiership owners think and operate.
