Ashley Beck joined the ranks of the unemployed this week, along with his fellow Worcester Warriors players and some staff members.
From being part of a settled working situation, the 32-year-old Wales international has found himself plunged into a frightening world of uncertainty. He and his partner had bought a house together and have two young children, one of whom had just started school at nursery level. The family have been happy in Worcester and made friends. Ashley and Leanne had made plans to start up a small business.
Now, life has been badly disrupted.
READ MORE: Josh Adams devastated by plight of old club Worcester
The company holding the contracts of Worcester players and some staff, WRFC Players Ltd, was liquidated on Wednesday, meaning the arrangements of those affected were terminated. Hope that the situation wouldn’t reach such a point had finally evaporated. In the middle of one of the harshest economic climates in years, all concerned now have to plot their own ways forward.
“It’s something you just didn’t want to happen,” said Beck, formerly of the Ospreys and who won seven caps for Wales.
“We love it up here. My daughter was born in Hereford, my son was born in Worcester and we’ve been here for what would have been my fifth season.
“We’ve made friends up here and got to know a lot of people. We like where we live. It’s central to everything we do as a family.
“It’s such a shame. My family’s affected but, of course, the same applies to others in the squad and the staff. Some boys have come from South Africa. There are the fans, their kids who want to go and watch games on a weekend and make a family thing of it.
“This week, I went to coach at King’s, a private school in the area. While I was there I was thinking about some of the young kids there who might have been in an academy and started to get into the pathway. Now it’s up in the air — for everyone. It’s not just the 250 staff who’re affected. It’s the whole city.
“It’s a poor situation with everything that’s gone on.”
Worcester’s director of rugby Steve Diamond hinted at his disillusionment over those who had recently overseen the club’s lurch into sporting hell, saying on social media: “This is the darkest day for English rugby. We thought we could turn the tanker around but it’s ended up like the Titanic, sadly. The ship has sunk, the captains are nowhere to be seen.”
What has the saga been like to live through for those on the receiving end?
“For a while there’s been a worry over Worcester that something like this could happen,” continued Beck.
“You read this and that and so I guess there have been doubts over the owners. You try to push such things to the back of your mind and think and hope that it won’t happen to you. You try to think: ‘We’ll be fine, we’ll be fine’.
“There were a couple of things last season that weren’t great signs. But we’d just won the Premiership Cup, we’d had a great win over Bath to finish the season, we were kind of going in a good direction. Dimes [Steve Diamond] had got everyone on page and signed some new boys. It was pointing the right way.
“Then when we came back from a pre-season tour to Wales, the Wasps story had come out at the weekend, saying they had financial issues, and by the Wednesday we were hearing off Wasps players ‘you boys have a winding up order’. We didn’t think we had because we hadn’t heard a thing.
“We were finding out off other people what was actually going on. It worked out that, yes, we did have problems, but we were probably among the last to find out.
“It seems there’s a lot of misleading stuff and the worst thing about it is that people have tried to hide behind things. It’s tough, then, knowing who to trust.”
But Beck has no regrets about his time at Worcester, saying: “I’ve loved it up here. There are boys from all over the place in the senior squad and people are here with their partners and families. You bond off the field and your families become close. Being able to captain the club and win a trophy with them has left me with some great memories. Even though there have been some tough times with results, the playing group have kept the place together.
“The club reminds me of Aberavon in that it’s really close. At Aberavon, people like Andrew Vaughan John were great for me coming through as a youngster and helped me loads. There was that link between fans and the club and the whole club was close, like it has been at Worcester.
“Everyone in the city has fought for the club.”
As a centre with Test pedigree, Beck should manage to find a club. He is a player who can not only truck the ball up but also has an accomplished passing game and can put others into space. Had rugby been kinder to him, he could have won more caps. You can read more about the four young players a Wales coach tipped for the top here.
But he is looking forward now. “I still feel I have a few years left,” he said.
“I had some injuries in my Ospreys career, but at Worcester over the past three years I’ve knocked up almost 60 appearances. Hopefully, people will look to the latter years and see how many matches I’ve played.
“Derwyn Jones has represented me since I was 17 and he’s done a great job in getting me through until I’m 32. He’s working as hard as he can and, hopefully, something will crop up.
“You don’t know what will happen through a season. If nothing initially happens, there’s always injury covers, when people look for players later on down the line. It would be good if I could just stay involved in rugby.
“I did a lot of coaching when I was back home. I’ve done bits up here with the academy. As I said, I went down to King’s this week. Rugby’s a big part of my life and I don’t think I’m ready to step away.”
Of Beck, the former Ospreys boss and Wales coach Scott Johnson once said: “He has wonderful feet and beautiful passing skills. What he lacks in genuine gas, he makes up for because he has time on the ball. And he’s a really good lad.”
Fate hasn’t always been kind to Beck, especially in the early part of his career with the injuries he sustained, but he overcame the setbacks and in so doing showed no little character.
He has also developed into a leader. Whichever club picks him up is unlikely to regret it.
Read more:
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