Is domestic English Rugby doomed?

With the rugby world cup ongoing, all eyes are on the English national team as they look towards the quarter finals after qualifying a game early, however whilst the pinnacle of English rugby is seeing these successes, masked underneath this glory is a fight for survival for many of the clubs across the professional landscape of rugby in England. The premiership expansion to fourteen clubs never materialising and as the premiership gears up to start another season, just ten clubs will take part in the top division, so where did it all go wrong and is an imminent solution or will the pattern of the last season continue as it appears to be. Since the beginning of the 2022 season, four clubs have all met the same fate and gone into administration. Worcester warriors were the first club to go only competing in the first few matches of the season, in their last ever game on the 24th September being a 39-5 victory over Newcastle Falcons, they had bounced between the divisions on occasions but since 2004 were a mainstay of most premiership seasons, after being bought in 2018 by a consortium the problems began to emerge as debts piled up, and during the covid pandemic, with revenue being at a low and the club owing at £6 million pound tax bill to the HMRC as well as £25 Million pounds in other debts. The owners appeared to have run out of money and due to lack of revenue, debts and financial mismanagement went under.

Wasps RFC were next to go, being one of the most successful clubs in rugby history winning 6 Premierships and 2 Champions cups. Wasps issues began when they moved from their home in London all the way to Coventry, buying the at the time “Ricoh Arena” using a financial bond. Once the beginning of the season came around Wasps, due to covid repercussions as well as missing their payments on the bond as well as the move to Coventry, isolated much of the fanbase that supported the club not wanting to make the 80 mile trip. Wasps failed to entice the fanbase in Coventry who already had a team to support. This led to them entering administration and despite several attempts to join the championship in October 2022 the club was officially kicked out the premiership. London Irish after their best season on record finishing 5th just three points off the playoffs entered administration during the off season, we spoke to a longtime London Irish supporter who expressed her feeling on the club going under and how important it meant to their family “It was a way of our family unit to stay connected… returning to watch matches with my family was our shared expression of love and togetherness”. Like Wasps, Irish also suffered from moving grounds going from Reading to Brentford and the already small fanbase could only on average fill half the stadium and by then the owner Mick Crossan had committed enough, not wanting to repay a £10 million pound post covid loan. When asked about whether she believe the RFU have done enough to promote the domestic game to help aid clubs bring in revenue the support mentioned “The RFU are a disaster, there is no clear vision or planning. The changes they have made are too little too late”. The loss of Irish also led to the loss of one of the best academies in England, with Irish owning Hazelwood a high end facility which over the years has produced many young talents.

Unfortunately, this view resonates with a lot of rugby supporters in England who believe that the RFU are still stuck in their old ways and not trying to expand the game to the north of England and out of private schools as well as Twickenham, home of English rugby becoming more and more expensive excluding many fans from being able to watch the game which as well as a lack of televised games leads to a reduction in interest for the domestic game which has these knock on effects of clubs struggling for revenue. When asked if she sees a future for domestic English rugby the supporter responded with “We need new management at the top, people who not only love the game but understand a new generation of customer.” Solutions need to be found soon as Jersey Reds announce they too have gone into administration despite winning the championship last season with reoccurring issues being a lack of engagement in domestic rugby due it not being visible and the RFU not providing sufficient amounts of support which has led to clubs being forced to make drastic and unsuccessful decisions.