This Morning's Varied Summaries (others are available)

[Neils]

London Irish?s new dawn has turned into a funeral procession

A third club in just nine months to be suspended from the Premiership as London Irish suffer the same fate as Worcester Warriors and Wasps
By Daniel Schofield, Deputy Rugby Union Correspondent 6 June 2023 ? 8:38pm


When London Irish confirmed their move from the unloved Madejski Stadium in Reading to closer to their spiritual south-west London home in Brentford in 2018, it was heralded as a new dawn for the club.

?In moving we?re confident we?ll attract a larger supporter base to join us,? then president Mick Crossan said. ?I would like to thank the London Irish Board of Directors, current and past, for their hard work in steering the realisation of the London Irish vision and securing the financial stability of the club.?

Alas, it secured neither the larger supporter base nor the financial stability that Crossan envisioned. The terms of playing at the Gtech Brentford Community Stadium were far more generous than at the Madejski, which is why they paid Reading FC to enact their break clause.

It was a better location, the most accessible of any Premiership club, with great facilities, but as tenants Irish were always going to remain vulnerable to any financial crosswinds.

Which is exactly what happened when the Covid-19 pandemic hit, forcing the club to play matches behind closed doors at their shiny new stadium while paying prohibitive rent. Remarkably, Irish were operating one of the Premiership?s largest wage bills at the time accounting for marquee players and credits.

Adam Coleman, a decent but by no means remarkable Australian second row, joined the club on a reported ?900,000, making him one of the entire league?s highest paid players.

It was a largesse that even Crossan, whose fortune has been estimated at around ?50 million after founding Powerday, the waste and recycling management company, was struggling to afford. Last summer as it became increasingly clear that simultaneous crises were unfolding at Worcester Warriors and Wasps, whispers also started growing around Irish?s future.


This was confirmed when Crossan gave an interview to the Mail on Sunday in which he confirmed he was not just looking to sell the club but was prepared to give it away for free. ?If anyone?s looking to buy a rugby club with its own training ground and P shares then they don?t even have to buy it,? Crossan said. ?For me, at my age, it?s most probably the right time for me to say that I?ve done what I set out to do. I think I?ve done my bit. The club is on a good footing, with a great academy.?

Other owners within the Premiership had valued their ?P? shares, which entitles a club to the central income from the Rugby Football Union and broadcasting funding, at around ?20 million.

Their 63-acre training complex in Hazelwood, just around the corner from their charming old Sunbury training ground, is as high class as any in the Premiership and frequently hosted NFL teams visiting for the London games.

Yet what should have been the deal of the century did not attract a stampede of prospective buyers. The club were loaded with ?30 million of debt without the fixed asset of a stadium to compensate.

This is where the American consortium emerged as potential white knights. Details were ? and still remain ? incredibly sketchy. Howard Thomas, a former chief executive of Premiership Rugby, appears to have made the initial approach; listed as the managing director of Redstrike which claims to have expertise in rugby?s development markets.

Redstrike have links to 777 Partners, an American private equity group recently linked with a takeover of Everton FC.

Yet Thomas appeared to be acting for another American consortium which Telegraph Sport revealed was headed by Alfred ?Chip? Sloan, a former sports agent and lawyer. Sloan had previously inquired about buying into Saracens but was quickly rebuffed by the club. Simon Massie-Taylor, the chief executive of Premiership Rugby, even hailed the American interest as a ?positive news story?.

Discussions started around the turn of the year but at nearly every turn the consortium failed to make good on its pledges with the RFU Club Financial Viability Group, which has to approve any takeover, waiting in vain for the most basic of documentation.

At the same time, it became known that Crossan was only willing to fund Irish through March. The club were four days late paying the players their April payroll, although they sought to explain this delay with the ?cheque?s in the post? excuse of the Bank Holiday.

The squad, who were prepared to hand in breach-of-contract letters, played their final match of the season against Exeter Chiefs and finished fifth in the league, their highest position in 14 years. It is a testament to the coaching ability of Declan Kidney and the resilience of the squad that they were able to perform so consistently with so much uncertainty in the background.


A bigger battle remained. Tired of the incessant delays and fearful of the saga dragging into the summer, the RFU set a deadline of May 30 for the takeover to be completed. This deadline was moved 24 hours and then, after Crossan agreed to pay 50 per cent of the May payroll, another week ? to Tuesday June 6. An internal email sent to the players stated that the remainder would be paid ?immediately (once) the funds drop in from the Americans, which is expected imminently?.

Yet on Tuesday, Crossan and the Americans, however serious their actual intentions, ran out of road for their can-kicking exercise.

Irish?s bright new dawn has now turned to darkness.

[Neils]

London Irish?s demise should terrify those in rugby?s corridors of power
Gerard Meagher

The reasons behind Irish?s downfall are different to that of Worcester and Wasps but no less chilling for the sport
Tue 6 Jun 2023 20.00 BST
Last modified on Tue 6 Jun 2023 20.47 BST

If one is misfortune and two is carelessness how on earth to describe the loss of a third Premiership club in the space of eight months? London Irish have finally followed Worcester and Wasps in being kicked out of the league, the financial mess that engulfs club rugby growing deeper. Again it is a tale of broken promises, of misplaced hope that salvation was round the corner.

The figures alone are haunting. Upwards of ?30m of debt, approximately 70 players unemployed. But the numbers do not speak of the devastation that accompanies the demise of a professional club. Nor the depressing inevitability of something that has been on the cards for months, writ large in recent weeks, or the powerlessness to stop it.

The reasons behind Irish?s demise are different to that of Worcester and Wasps but no less chilling. Worcester?s problem was their co-owners; Wasps? what can be described, with hindsight, as a ludicrous bond scheme. What will terrify those in the corridors of power in regards to Irish?s downfall is that it was due to a benefactor who had supported the club for the last decade but either could not or would not continue to do so.

It is terrifying because here is an illustration of just how precarious it can be to live at the mercy of a wealthy owner initially willing to absorb losses. Take Bath as an example. Bruce Craig is said to have pumped a few more million into the club and Finn Russell?s arrival will be greeted with great fanfare. But what of Bath if Craig pulls the plug? The same goes for Bristol if Steve Lansdown decides it is time to get out. Likewise Tony Rowe at Exeter. Newcastle, on the other hand, have been criticised for slashing their budget and with it their ambition. At times the criticism is justified ? their capitulation at home to Northampton in the penultimate round of the season was pathetic ? but at least they are trying to live within their means.

If the first draft of the next Professional Game Agreement does not spell out instructions as to how clubs must address their debt ? exacerbated by Covid recovery loans ? and that their central funding is conditional on it, then it should be ripped up and thrown in the bin. That the government has stepped in by appointing two independent advisers to assist with the restructuring of the domestic game only reiterates the gravity of the problem.
Juan Martin Gonz?lez of London Irish takes part in the lap of honour at the end of the Premiership match against Northampton Saints at the Gtech Community Stadium on March
The cream of the London Irish playing squad will be swiftly picked up but less-heralded players may struggle. Photograph: Mike Hewitt/Getty Images

At Irish, just as at Worcester and at Wasps, it is the human cost that is most sobering. The employees who are now out of work, who have given years, decades, to the club. In terms of the playing squad, the cream will be swiftly picked off ? Tom Pearson has an array of suitors, so too Henry Arundell and the highly rated Chandler Cunningham-South. But what of the lesser-heralded players? Not all will find employment in what is already a crowded market.

That the players and staff agreed to an extension to the Rugby Football Union?s deadline, primarily to ensure that they at least received some of May?s wages, is a damning indictment of the landscape. Irish?s owner, Mick Crossan, has his supporters after picking up the club a decade ago, for absorbing losses year on year, for relocating them to the capital and for continuing an upward trajectory. Much of that goodwill has been lost in recent weeks. As well as being given the ultimatum of only being paid 50% of May?s wages in order to keep the club afloat, staff and players were also paid April?s wages late.

To put the burden on the players is to tug at the heartstrings. At the start of May, Irish?s director of rugby, Declan Kidney, reminded us it was a club with a 124-year history, with amateur roots in Sunbury in Surrey, also a club with a community feel. It is that sort of emotion that clouds judgment when it comes to the proposed takeover by a US consortium. Take it away and all that?s left is an investment that makes little business sense. Granted the Hazelwood training base is an impressive asset, but Irish do not own their stadium and have tens of millions of pounds of debt.

Simon Massie-Taylor, chief executive of Premiership Rugby, has inherited a lot of problems of his predecessors? making and has approached them with commendable intent, but it was naive in the extreme to remark of Irish?s prospective buyers that ?they?re from across the pond and they?ve got interest in other sports so it is a positive news story?. He is not the first to be seduced by Uncle Sam but will now have to set about accelerating plans for a 10-team Premiership.

The desperate shame is that Irish have made great strides on the pitch this season. Kidney deserves great credit for that; he is an experienced hand with an unflappable nature who will have protected his squad from the turmoil as best he could. There is a wealth of talent in the squad, too, and if the aim was to spend big on players such as Waisake Naholo, Adam Coleman, Sean O?Brien and Curtis Rona as the cohort of English talent that includes Pearson and Arundell emerged then it nearly worked. The fanbase in Brentford has also grown ? more than 11,500 attended their final match of the season ? but ultimately it is another moonshot to crash and burn.

For its part the RFU has not known whether to stick or twist as the echoes with Worcester and Wasps have grown louder in recent weeks. On one hand there has been a desperation to avoid losing a third club from the Premiership in the space of eight months; on the other the union has to be firm after its chief executive, Bill Sweeney, was skewered by a parliamentary inquiry in November.


Irish?s suspension will only heap the pressure on Sweeney, whose public appearances have dried up in recent months. He is under pressure over his planned governance reforms and the botched handling of the tackle height law change. There is also understood to be an anticipated ?40m shortfall in the RFU?s income, alongside a further projected ?10m loss due to inflationary costs, such as those related to overheads.


The next Professional Game Agreement ? which comes into force next year ? may be Sweeney?s intended parting legacy but, in truth, he may not even get that far. If he does, then addressing the Championship ? whose funding was slashed on his watch ? must be among his priorities. It is absurd to think the Championship can come to the rescue for so many players out of work when it is not funded properly. If there is a glimmer of hope it is that cut-price year-long deals in the second tier or France, before the Premiership salary cap goes back up to ?6.4m, may be the least bad option for many players.

But that several clubs believe raising the salary cap again is madness, given the current climate, only goes to highlight the depth of the quagmire English rugby is in. As one well-placed source lamented: ?What is the vision, can the RFU give us a concrete vision for what English rugby looks like??

Until it does, the worry is that London Irish will not be the third and last to fall. For now there are 10 green bottles sitting on the wall.

[Neils]

ALEX BYWATER: London Irish's suspension was the final nail in the coffin of a truly disastrous season and a line must be drawn... three teams going to the wall is embarrassing and a national sporting DISGRACE

    London Irish have been suspended from the Premiership over financial failings
    A third club going to the wall in one season is the final nail in a disastrous coffin
    Those in the corridors of power must accept that the situation is unacceptable

By Alex Bywater For Mailonline

Published: 22:40, 6 June 2023 | Updated: 00:31, 7 June 2023


Last week, the government appointed two independent advisers to support the RFU and Premiership Rugby in their bid to get the game in England back on an even keel.

Frankly, lads, you've arrived too late. The horse has bolted. The goose is cooked. Confirmation on Tuesday night that London Irish have become the third club to be suspended from the Premiership over financial failings was the final nail in the coffin of what has been a truly disastrous season.

Over to you, Ralph Rimmer and Chris Pilling. Boy have the advisers - as well as RFU chief executive Bill Sweeney and Premiership chief Simon Massie-Taylor - got a job on their hands.

Those in English rugby's corridors of power must accept that what has gone on off the field this season has been totally unacceptable. To start the Premiership campaign with 13 teams and end it with 10 is a shocking indictment of not only the game itself, but how it is run.

A line in the sand must now be drawn.
London Irish became the third Premiership club sent to the wall due to financial failings

London Irish became the third Premiership club sent to the wall due to financial failings
RFU CEO Bill Sweeney has a job on his hands at the end of a truly disastrous season for rugby



Nearly a third of the top teams in English rugby have now fallen by the wayside in less than 12 months, Irish the latest after the earlier demise of both Worcester and Wasps. Had this happened in English football, there would surely have been a national outcry.

As it is - with rugby a minority sport struggling for a place in the national conscious - many won't bat an eyelid. What a terrible shame, predominantly for those at Worcester, Wasps and Irish who have lost their jobs in professional sport and might struggle for a way back.

That includes players, of course, but also staff and management. They are the real victims in all this.

In November last year, Sweeney and Massie-Taylor appeared before the select committee for the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) in Westminster.

The pair faced brutal questioning over the financial failures of Wasps and Worcester. Sweeney and Massie-Taylor were torn limb from limb. Their organisations and their management of English rugby were slammed, but behind the headlines the truth was a lot of the DCMS hearing amounted to mere political grandstanding.

Members of Parliament had their moment in the sun. But the fact Irish have now followed Worcester and Wasps shows absolutely no lessons have been learned from rugby's day in the dock.
Players, staff and management are the real victims, and the situation is a sporting disgrace

Players, staff and management are the real victims, and the situation is a sporting disgrace
Wasps, just like Irish and Worcester, will be missed badly - it is all such a lamentable shame


It is an embarrassment, a national sporting disgrace.

Let's not forget Irish finished fifth in the Premiership, narrowly missing out on the play-offs. They played a fine brand of rugby and, like Worcester and Wasps, will be missed badly. It is all such a lamentable shame.

Where have CVC Capital Partners - the private equity firm heralded as rugby's saving grace - been in all this? Nowhere to be seen, that's where.

CVC's silence has been deafening. One can only assume as they've sat idly by and let Worcester, Wasps and now Irish fall to ruin, that CVC are happy to let the Premiership wither and drop to a 10-team league.

Let's be honest, as awful as it has been to see three teams disappear, a 10-team Premiership does have significant advantages - predominantly because it would mean fewer league matches will be played at the same time as internationals. That can only be a positive move.

But fewer games also means less matchday revenue for clubs already on the bread line. The long-lasting impact of Covid-19 continues to hit English domestic rugby. Worcester, Wasps and Irish are, tragically, no more and you couldn't rule out others following suit.

With the help of Rimmer - who doesn't come with the best reputation from rugby league by the way - and Pilling, it is absolutely paramount another team does not die. But no-one can guarantee that right now.
Irish played a superb brand of rugby and finished fifth, narrowly missing out on the play-offs

Irish played a superb brand of rugby and finished fifth, narrowly missing out on the play-offs
There can be a positive way forward but this won't help those who have already felt the pain

There can be a positive way forward but this won't help those who have already felt the pain

So, what next? The first thing English rugby must do is scrap the ludicrous idea of raising the Premiership's salary cap - how much each team spends on their squad - back up from ?5million-a-team to ?6.4m for the start of the 2024/25 season.

How can that be justifiable at a time when sides are folding? What other industry would raise its cost base without seeing an increase in income and watching three of its businesses go to the wall? Has English rugby not learned its lessons of overspending?

One must also hope the division's new television deal brings about an increase in revenue. Time will tell if that proves to be the case but there must be a chance given the attractiveness of the product the Premiership produces. The competitive nature of the league is central to that.

There can be a positive way forward from this wreckage, even if it will take time.

That won't help those connected to Worcester, Wasps and Irish who have already felt so much pain.

English rugby must never again have a season like the one just gone and to ensure that is the case, there is a significant amount of work to be done. International rugby, to a degree, will always look after itself.

It is the domestic game where the majority of the RFU's focus must now be.

[Neils]

Three that I can easily access.

[DGP Wasp]

One must also hope the division's new television deal brings about an increase in revenue. Time will tell if that proves to be the case but there must be a chance given the attractiveness of the product the Premiership produces. The competitive nature of the league is central to that.

Wishful thinking that BT will come to the table with extra sackfuls of cash for a league with half as many games as was being proposed just a couple of years ago (182 regular season @ 14 teams vs 90 @ 10 teams).

No good clinging to the hope that the competitiveness of the league is a big selling point as that's just bollocks. Sarries cheating year after year and wrapping up the league by Christmas; Newcastle desperately trying to avoid going the way of Wasps, Wuss and Irish with a hugely depleted squad cut far adrift at the bottom  (likely joined by others from next season, but with no relegation even the scrap at the bottom is of no consequence); and a handful of other teams scrapping it out for the right to get spanked by Sarries at Twickenham at the end of the, season. Hardly what you'd call "Box Office".

[Neils]

Also with BT now controlled from the US I can see a very hard bargain time - probably more "a take it or leave". BT also were not pleased with the release of matches to FTA which depleted their audience.

[baldpaul101]

While the overall outcome of the Prem was never really in doubt, there have been some fantastic games through out the season. The quality of the product week in week out has been excellent. It is a great shame that it couldn't have had a more exciting ending.
That said, the Pro 14 looks like being a shoot out between Toulouse & La Rochelle, not much of a surprise & the URC was only a shock because of Leinster's arrogance in picking a B team in some critical games. It doesn't mean that those leagues are boring per se IMO.

[westwaleswasp]

 There is still one team benefiting from cheating off the pitch. Thus, the whole league is bullshit.

[Neils]

There is still one team benefiting from cheating off the pitch. Thus, the whole league is bullshit.

Only one?

[jamestaylor002]

While the overall outcome of the Prem was never really in doubt, there have been some fantastic games through out the season. The quality of the product week in week out has been excellent. It is a great shame that it couldn't have had a more exciting ending.
That said, the Pro 14 looks like being a shoot out between Toulouse & La Rochelle, not much of a surprise & the URC was only a shock because of Leinster's arrogance in picking a B team in some critical games. It doesn't mean that those leagues are boring per se IMO.

I think it depends on perspective and what you want from sport. By no means am I saying you are wrong!

As I now consider myself a neutral, where the Premiership is concerned anyway, I would want a league as competitive as possible across the board so that as many games as possible have meaning. Top spot is always half taken by Saracens before the season even starts with 2nd and 3rd taken by whichever clubs are having a particularly good season. 4th is then taken by whichever club has managed to out-muscle the rest (to then get ceremoniously dumped out at the semi's, unless you're Quins of course). I don't disagree that some games have been exciting but is it all that exciting overall when it doesn't threaten who ends up winning it at the end?

[Rifleman Harris]

I agree, any league where the winner is a foregone conclusion is boring.  I done get the hype around the Premier league in football. Man City are way ahead of the rest and will win again next year.  Interestingly they have also been charged with financial doping, and like Saracens, are likely to get away more or less scot free. And they media just ignore that and continue to fawn over them. 

Football won't suffer if Man City continue to win year after year, the media will see to that and it is more likely to help the lower leagues as proper fans seek proper football.  Rugby doesn't have that luxury,

[andermt]

I agree, any league where the winner is a foregone conclusion is boring.  I done get the hype around the Premier league in football. Man City are way ahead of the rest and will win again next year.  Interestingly they have also been charged with financial doping, and like Saracens, are likely to get away more or less scot free. And they media just ignore that and continue to fawn over them. 

Football won't suffer if Man City continue to win year after year, the media will see to that and it is more likely to help the lower leagues as proper fans seek proper football.  Rugby doesn't have that luxury,

This is the over riding issue. Teams come and go and dominate, whatever the sport, look at F1, there are many era's where certain teams dominate, people will make boring comments and the fans of said teams will be happy,

the issue with the 2 premier leagues and ships is the fact teams have cheated their way to the top, that being the case people who support the other teams will be very unhappy, a different situation to teams who dominate legally.

Rugby is a mess because of that team cheating and other teams running at their max to try and keep up, I was surprised to hear Irish were closest to the cap in recent years (all be it a soft cap, or flexible if you are sarries). Also the fact they cheated, got found out but still kept their tainted titles, still the media and certain fans think they were hard done by.
Going back to F1, the year Schumacher tried to take out Villeneuve to win the championship, he had his championship finish null and voided, he kept the wins, which were largely fair and square but not his second place in the championship after he tried to cheat his way to the win.

[Skippy]

The again the expenditure cap in F1 is also bollocks. Red Bull get caught breaching the cap and get the lowest grade slap on the wrist.

Even worse the cap includes both capex and opex. So if you?re a well established team with flashy facilities you have a massive advantage.

So Ferrari, Red Bull and Mercedes can continue to dominate at the front of the grid.

If you?re Williams, you can?t just invest in a top-end wind tunnel and so end up having to suck it up as a mobile chicane.

Aston are seem to be defying to odds, but that has something to do with (i) growing their capital bases a little more each year and (ii) starting from being little more than a Pink Mercedes before transforming into a Green Bull.

[COYW15]

BT Sport demanding multi-million pound rebate from Premiership Rugby now reported in the Mail.

[Shugs]

Oh dear. Now that would be a problem. It?s simple maths really. If you assume 70% of BT subscribers follow one of the 11 clubs. That gives each club 6.5% of rugby subscribers and means the three that have gone contribute roughly 20%. If just half of those cancel that?s 10% bt have lost. That?s huge.