Demise of Wasps leaves English club rugby in dire need of major overhaul

It is less than a month since the Premiership Rugby Limited chief executive, Simon Massie-Taylor, spoke of the doomsday scenario that loomed over club rugby given the widespread financial turmoil. Wasps’ suspension on Wednesday after the admission they are likely to go into administration brings PRL face-to-face with that very scenario and the prospect of finishing the league with 11 teams. What’s worse is that come May there could even be fewer.

Rewind the clock further and it was seven years ago Wasps were being proclaimed as the richest club in the world after the bond scheme that has played such a big part in their undoing. Precisely how they now find themselves set to follow in the path of Worcester will be determined by the independent inquiry, which must surely be set up to examine the failings of domestic club rugby in England. That does not make the blow any more palatable, however, for one of the country’s most successful clubs.

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In those seven years they have not lifted the Premiership – though they have reached two finals – but they boast six titles and two European Cups. For all that Lawrence Dallaglio caused upset on Sunday, when he appeared to suggest his former club should treated differently from the Warriors, he was speaking, as he played throughout his Wasps career during their heyday, with heart on sleeve.

There have been some good times in the West Midlands with Charles Piutau, Danny Cipriani and Kurtley Beale lighting up the place, but it is a move that has not worked out. As Wednesday’s announcement confirmed, in the coming days it seems they will be sent to Coventry for a second time. The most depressing aspect is there are no guarantees they will be the last club to fail. Should that be the case it can be said without question that the entire edifice is crumbling.

Major overhaul must therefore come because those in charge of the domestic game can not afford to let the status quo continue. Directors of rugby are becoming increasingly emboldened in calling for change – a surefire sign it is on the horizon. On Wednesday Rob Baxter and Pat Lam made plain their views and, if they were doing so before news of Wasps’ plight was announced, with Exeter now hosting Bristol in a friendly on Saturday suggests they had a pretty good idea.

The hope is that the penny has finally dropped for the Premiership club owners. The impact of the Covid pandemic is unmistakable on a league that relies so heavily on gate receipts but no sport was afforded better financial support from the government, to the tune of more than £100m. It is only four years since the private equity firm CVC pumped £200m into the league in exchange for a 27% stake but still the Premiership is swimming in debt.

So much so that investors see no value in putting money into clubs until they have been put into administration. It is not long before sponsors will follow in realising that an association with the Premiership is no longer worthwhile and if broadcasters have been sympathetic in the early weeks of the season it would be no surprise to see them calling for a return to the negotiating table.

Radical options would include summoning a Championship team or two for the remainder of the season, though that is unlikely. More foreseeable is a move to a 10-team top tier – backed by Baxter on Wednesday – with a robust league below it, also of 10 professional teams. That could include teams from Wales but, more important, it would have independent governance by Premiership Rugby and the Rugby Football Union, rather than the current self-rule system where the clubs attempt to govern themselves.

Massie-Taylor is a significant upgrade on his predecessor, Darren Childs, as the Premiership’s chief executive, but that he had to call publicly for even the power to be granted a look at the clubs’ finances demonstrates how he operates with both hands tied behind his back.

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As for the players at Wasps, there is a degree of resignation that their futures lie elsewhere. As much as it is difficult to imagine Joe Launchbury playing his club rugby away from Wasps, agents have spent the past few days touting around members of the squad. It will affect Worcester players, too, because it becomes all the more a buyer’s market.

It may sound heartless but eventually one of the root causes of so many of club rugby’s problems will begin to be addressed. In short, the players are paid too much. They have every right to take what they can get – it is a short career and the punishment their bodies take is remarkable – but wages are too expensive across the board.

Fewer matches may make smaller salaries more palatable and, as evidenced by Sam Simmonds moving to France next season and reports that Jack Nowell and Joe Marchant to name but two may follow, there are more lucrative pay packets on offer abroad. In that sense, next season coming immediately after a World Cup cycle provides the PRL and RFU with the perfect opportunity to implement an overhaul. It is one they can not afford to waste.