England Rugby/Six nations 2023

[alf git]

Half time.
33-0

[alf git]

49 minutes. France get on the score board.
33-7

[alf git]

33-14

[alf git]

England strike back.
38-14

[alf git]

38-21

[alf git]

A game of two halves. France come close to spoiling Englands party.
38-31
England win the Grand Slam in front of a world record attendance of 58,498.

[dasnutnock3]

AWJ & Tipuric retired for Wales. Couple of titans of the game there, Jones in particular had an unbelievable career. Will be much missed

[Johnny Byrne's Boots]

London Irish served winding up petition by HMRC

London Irish have been served a winding-up petition by HM Revenue & Customs over an unpaid tax bill.

The ailing Premiership club were this week given an extended deadline of 16:00 BST on Tuesday, 6 June to complete a proposed takeover.

But on Friday petitions were filed at the High Court against London Irish Holdings Limited and London Irish Rugby Football Ground Limited.

Irish could yet be suspended from the top flight of English rugby.

For the club to avoid suspension, they must complete a takeover or demonstrate they have the funding to operate for the entire 2023-24 season.

The winding-up petition came on the day that the UK government appointed independent advisers to support rugby union bosses as they attempt to preserve the future of the professional game after the failures of Worcester and Wasps last season.

HMRC would not comment specifically on London Irish but a spokesperson said: "We take a supportive approach to dealing with customers who have tax debts and only file winding-up petitions once we've exhausted all other options, in order to protect taxpayers' money."

As part of the Rugby Football Union's latest 6 June takeover deadline, the Exiles have been told they must ensure the May payroll for all staff and players is paid in full - with only 50% received so far.


more...

[alf git]

What's happening to English domestic rugby?

[Johnny Byrne's Boots]

London Irish suspended from Premiership

London Irish have been suspended from the Premiership after missing a deadline to pay players and staff.

The club, which had been given until Tuesday to complete a takeover or risk being suspended, will not be allowed to play in any league next season.

A US consortium had been trying to buy the club, which finished fifth in the Premiership during 2022-23.

An RFU statement said the takeover had not materialised and the move would provide certainty for other clubs.

Despite plans announced in 2021 to expand to 14 teams, English rugby now faces the prospect of a 10-team Premiership next season following the demise of Worcester Warriors and Wasps.

A 10-team top flight with a reduced salary cap was discussed by clubs midway through last season, according to Leicester Tigers chief executive Andrea Pinchen.

Chief executive Bill Sweeney said: "This is desperately sad news for everyone who is part of the London Irish community as well as all the players, fans, staff and volunteers for whom this club means so much.

"Working alongside Premiership Rugby, the RPA and London Irish over recent months, our collective first priority has been to do the utmost to secure the long-term viability of the club and the protection of its players and staff.

"To achieve this, it was imperative that transparent evidence of funding be presented to us. This would have been either by the proposed buyers undertaking to provide all required working capital to meet the club's obligations for at least the 2023-24 season; or the club providing evidence that it would continue to fund its operations throughout the 2023-24 season.

"Despite requesting this evidence over the last six months and receiving assurances on multiple occasions that we would receive proof of ownership and funds; it has not materialised."

Shame. Their training complex is in my little part of the world, my previous house actually shared a fence with it although back then it was just open land.

[dasnutnock3]

London Irish suspended from Premiership



Shame. Their training complex is in my little part of the world, my previous house actually shared a fence with it although back then it was just open land.

Sunbury MASSIVE in the house!

[Johnny Byrne's Boots]

[ironsonthebrain]

What's happening to English domestic rugby?

I don't know but it seems to have coincided with the involvement of private equity firms......

[Eggchaser]

Paul Rendall former England prop dies aged 69.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/65891678

RIP the Judge

[dave_l]

I don't know but it seems to have coincided with the involvement of private equity firms......

COVID exacerbated things, and essentially those without a wealthy benfactor that is willing to lose cash year after year and/or their own ground that they sell out regularly were always going to struggle. Revenues have grown strongly since the game went professional but costs have flown up too. Even more so than football and without the huge TV money, there's a lot of dreamers in rugby and dreaming doesn't pay the bills.

There's a few factors involved as far as I see it.

A)The structure of the game in this country. We have a lot of clubs. All privately owned, some with their own ground, some not. Some with wealthy benefactors, some not. Ireland run a control and command approach. IRFU at the top - Leinster as the top club side drawing from a network of schools, clubs plus Munster and Ulster as secondary points and Connacht as the playground. No relegation from the URC either. Many Ireland players are centrally contracted, have tax incentives to stay in Ireland and at the moment it works well for them. In France, they have a strong club scene, local authorities see the game as a public good, so provide the local 'stade' at a knockdown rent. In addition, Ligue 1 is nowhere near as strong as the premier league, the French club rugby TV deal is much bigger as a result and wealthy benefactors fund a lot of the clubs too.

English clubs need to compete with the premier league, often shorne of internationals because of the schedule and have to fund everything themselves with very little assistance from local authorities.

B) Salary Caps etc. The salary cap system is meant to ensure competition and a level playing field - you had a salary cap, credite for academy players and a marquee player who didn't count towards the cap. Clubs were heading towards sustainability towards the middle of the last decade when the first salary cap scandal hit. At that point, Bath and Sarries were believed to be breaching the cap. Lawyers etc were threatened and as an upshot, the salary cap flew up a couple of million and teams could add another 'Marquee player' who was outside the cap. Clubs that were pretty much breaking even were now all losing a couple of million a year (conincidentally of course). Then came Salarycap gate Mark 2. Sarries had been found to have systemically cheated - the impact of what they had done drove wages to unsustainable levels for the levels of revenue.

C) Some clubs just haven't been run very well. You look at the league and Irish were playing Coleman £900k a year, a mad amount. After leaving Sunbury, they were nomadic, sharing with Reading at that retail park ground, then to Brentford. You'd think heading back to London would've helped, but in the time they'd been away, Harlequins had grown their supporter base such that the Stoop isn't big enough for them any more and Saracens were established as a top top side. London Scottish, Richmond, Rosslyn Park and Barnes are also decent lower league clubs in the same area. The Big Game concept for Quins, massively expanded their profile using Twickenham for 1/2x a season and getting millions in revenues as a result. Wasps were similarly nomadic, no home ground and Coventry was gamble that just didn't pay off. They turned up and upset the football team, upset the local championship rugby club and moved into an area that also had 2 of the biggest clubs in the country in Northampton and Leicester on their doorstep. Eventually the money stopped going in and the whole house of cards came down.

This is just a few of the things affecting the game.

This just scratches the surface. I think there's going to be some resets and a dose of realism will be required. A 10 team league is there now, we just need to make sure we make those 10 as solid as possible and start on developing more of a strong championship. Some difficult decisions ahead. There's a popular cry of "blame the RFU, 57 old farts etc etc." They are by no means blameless but this is a cop out, the clubs themselves (PRL) need to take a large amount of responsibility for getting into this mess in the first place and now to get out of it.

[Loftyhammer]

LCD misses World Cup due to injury. Alex Mitchell not picked.....x3 scrum halves are Youngs Care and JVP....not sure on that one personally!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/66064492

[alf git]

World Cup warm ups start today for the home nations.
On Prime
Scotland V France first up.

[Eggchaser]

LCD misses World Cup due to injury. Alex Mitchell not picked.....x3 scrum halves are Youngs Care and JVP....not sure on that one personally!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/66064492

Care will be there because of his partnership with Smith at Quins.

[dasnutnock3]

The Scotch beat France earlier? Fair play

Wales looking tatty so far, England look rusty.

[dasnutnock3]

1/2p still playing? Haven’t they found a new full back yet?