After a desperate week for English rugby, with the net closing around both Worcester and Wasps, Steve Diamond could at least still see the funny side. “That’s the first time my name has been read out in parliament,” the Worcester director of rugby quipped, in reference to an MP’s impassioned plea for the government to enforce administration on Thursday night.
At the same time Diamond was realistic about the outlook for the beleaguered Warriors. There is widespread resignation they will not come close to meeting the requirements set out by the Rugby Football Union before Monday’s deadline at 5pm. Suspension will follow and though there is hope Robin Walker’s plea will not go unheard - on Friday the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) instructed legal advisors to scrutinise Worcester’s accounts - Diamond’s admission that his players go into Saturday’s fixture with the mindset that “it’s our last game at Sixways ever” was sobering.
“It’s sad and it’s diabolical that it has been allowed to walk itself to the graveyard. I never thought it would get to this position but it has.”
There was a hint of relief in his voice too, simply that Worcester will not have to soldier on, with talk of deals to sell the club that never materialise, with bucket collections for their unpaid staff, in their current predicament. Suspension, Diamond believes, could only last a few weeks before the Premiership’s integrity is compromised but in that time Worcester would not be able to train at Sixways for insurance reasons.
Diamond was also eager to stress that though administration may help the club from disappearing entirely, it is hardly the answer to all of Worcester’s problems. “It’s a bit like the death of a dog,” he said. “You don’t want the poor thing to go to the vet on its last legs but you have to take it. If there’s any light at the end of the tunnel it’s not bright.”
The plight of Wasps, meanwhile, is similarly grim, even if they have bought themselves time by filing notice of their intention to appoint administrators and some goodwill for their proactive communication once the news broke on Wednesday. Still, their problems should not be underestimated and they have a matter of weeks to find around £2m or face heading down a similar path to Worcester.
Strictly speaking, Wasps should already be condemned to relegation. The RFU’s regulations make clear that filing notice of intention to appoint administrators is classified as an insolvency event which automatically triggers relegation for the following campaign if the season has already started.
The caveat is that the RFU, as with pretty much all of its regulations, reserves the right to change them and the union is highly unlikely to act decisively until Wasps are either put into administration or have averted that fate. Indeed, it seems unfathomable that Wasps would have taken the action they did this week without a pretty good idea that the RFU would not yet act.
Furthermore, there is a clause in the RFU regulations that says relegation can be averted if the insolvency event was not the club’s fault and it specially gives mention to a pandemic. It is debatable whether Wasps can invoke that clause given their bond scheme predates Covid-19 but the cynical view expressed by one well-placed source is that, even if administration comes to pass, Wasps have good reason to believe that they will not be relegated, nor lose their P share. If that were the case, administration suddenly becomes a more palatable way to deal with £35m of debt.
Clearly, the RFU is approaching Wasps’ situation with greater sympathy than Worcester’s. You could argue it will come a couple of weeks too late but Monday’s expected suspension can be taken as a realisation that Worcester’s plight has become more damning for the game than their removal from all competitions would be. If Wasps follow then the Premiership needs significant overhaul. A 10-team Premiership or a two-tier system that includes ambitious Championship clubs are among ideas floated and there is at least a growing acknowledgement that major change is needed.
Speaking of ambitious clubs, the mood at Ealing Trailfinders, who won last season’s thrilling Championship only to be denied largely on the grounds that their stadium is not big enough, is likely to be one of exasperation.
All the more so given the minimum standards criteria (MSC) for promotion, also tweaked this week, speak of sustainability and financial viability. Ealing and Doncaster would also have every right to question why Worcester have been allowed to operate at a maximum 4,999 capacity this season.
That the update to the MSC has come this week then is telling. On the face of it, it is good news for Ealing and Doncaster. The closer you look, though, the more it feels like an uneasy compromise and it can be seen as a product of the first cagey exchanges over the new Professional Game Agreement. According to one source, the RFU wanted a simpler 5,000 crowd limit, Premiership Rugby to keep it at 10,000. In the end comes a convoluted solution that seems to placate both sides if not particularly suiting either.
In that sense, it is not a promising sign because the existing PGA also suits neither party. The clubs think they lose their England players for too long - a situation exacerbated this season because the Premiership final has been brought forward to 27 May to allow for more preparation time for the World Cup. Eddie Jones is understood to be frustrated, however, because ultimately he ends up with less time with his players before the World Cup starts than in 2019.
That Premiership officials earlier this year acknowledged that their league lags behind German volleyball in terms of popularity at least showed an awareness of the work required to drive the commercial revenues that would stop clubs living beyond their means. This past week has shown that they must be radical in remodelling to achieve it and that the RFU must show a strong hand in steering them. Uneasy compromises are the last thing English rugby needs.
