Rugby News in General

Worcester Warriors: Premiership club suspended for season and relegated.

Financially stricken Worcester Warriors have been suspended for the rest of the Premiership season and will be relegated from the top tier.

The decision was taken by the Rugby Football Union's (RFU) club financial viability group to give time to find an investor and the "best chance for a long-term sustainable future".

Worcester players and staff had their contracts terminated on Wednesday when part of the club was wound up.

The club can appeal against the ruling.

To be successful, the Warriors would need to show there was no fault for the insolvency event.

As well as having their Premiership campaign ended, the suspension sees them kicked out of the Premiership Rugby Cup - a competition they won last season.

Conditions of takeover confirmed
While WRFC Players Ltd - through which players and staff were paid - has been wound up, a winding-up petition against WRFC Trading Limited, which remains in administration, has been suspended.

It has been confirmed that a condition of any takeover deal will require the payment of all rugby creditors, including any outstanding salaries owed to staff, players and coaches.

Some staff are still owed 35% of their August wages, while some did not get paid at all, and nobody was paid for September.

The club also owe a reported £15m, understood to be the largest share, as part of the combined £124m loaned out to Premiership clubs by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport during the height of the Covid pandemic as sports survival payments.

ichef.bbci.co.uk/onesport/cps/800/cpsprodpb/6185/production/_126856942_shutterstock_editorial_12611100b.jpg

Administrators have finalised the total debt of Worcester as £30 million !!!! ..... and there is a consortium willing to take up the baton again... are these people mad or just have money to throw away[especially if it isn't theirs]? 

Ronan O'Gara: La Rochelle head coach suspended for 10 weeks, his fourth ban in a year..

ichef.bbci.co.uk/onesport/cps/800/cpsprodpb/18033/production/_127755389_gettyimages-1400088935.jpg

La Rochelle head coach Ronan O'Gara has been given a fourth suspension in a year after being banned for 10 weeks.

The French rugby union league said the Ireland legend was suspended for "harming the best interests of rugby".

It did not specify when the incident occurred but the only match O'Gara has coached since completing a previous six-week ban was against Brive on 5 November.

He was fined 15,000 euros (£12,925) with a further 5,000 euros suspended.

The former fly-half, who can appeal against the punishment, was cited for remarks criticising the refereeing and the organisation of the championship.

The sanction is due to last until 30 January and means that O'Gara will not be available for La Rochelle's upcoming Heineken Champions Cup pool games against Northampton Saints and Ulster.

In November 2021, O'Gara was banned for two weeks for "showing disrespect to the authority of an official" during a match against Toulon.

He was then suspended for two weeks in April for "indiscipline" and "challenging the decisions of officials" in a game against Racing 92, although that did not stop him from leading La Rochelle to the European Champions Cup title.

This season started with O'Gara suspended in September for six weeks for "lack of respect" and "action against an official" at Lyon.

Levi Davis: Missing rugby star's family frustrated by search - very odd..

The mum of a British rugby player who disappeared in Barcelona says the weeks since have been "an emotional whirlwind".

Levi Davis has been missing in Spain for over a month, and mum Julie says the investigation has been "very slow".

The 24-year-old Worthing Raiders winger travelled by boat from Ibiza, where he visited a friend, on 29 October.

He was last seen on CCTV leaving the Old Irish Pub in the centre of Barcelona at about 22:00.

The rugby union player has not been seen or heard from since.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-63793572

How the hell this debt has been allowed to be is mind boggling, something has to be fundamentally wrong somewhere.

Former Ireland rugby star Tom Tierney dies aged 46 as tributes pour in..

Tributes have poured in after the death of former Ireland and Leicester Tigers scrum-half Tom Tierney at the age of 46.

Tierney was a member of the Ireland squad that made it as far as the quarter-final play-offs of the 1999 Rugby World Cup, where he scored in a 44-14 win over Romania. He won eight caps for his country across a two-year span but lost his place to the emerging Peter Stringer—a fellow Limerick man—in 2000 and never returned for the national team.

The former Munster playmaker came through the ranks with regional outfits Garryowen, Richmond and Galwegians before moving to the provincial level. He also made 15 appearances for Premiership giants Leicester between 2002 and 2004 before returning to his homeland for a four-year stint at Connacht.

Former team-mate Frankie Sheahan was emotional in his reaction to the news, writing that he was "truly devastated" to hear his "great friend and teammate" had died. "Fantastic player, superb character and outstanding coach," tweeted the ex-hooker. "Thoughts and prayers with Mary [Tierney's widow] and all the family."

After hanging up his boots, Tierney enjoyed a successful coaching career and was at the helm when Ireland's women won their second Six Nations crown in 2015. The team was narrowly denied a Grand Slam after losing to France, but Tierney later left the post in the wake of a poor showing at the 2017 Rugby World Cup.

“Everyone in Irish Rugby is deeply shocked to hear of the sudden loss of Tom Tierney," read a statement from IRFU chief executive Kevin Potts. "Our immediate thoughts are with his wife Mary and daughters Isabel and Julia, as well as his many friends, colleagues and former team-mates.

"Tom was an outstanding scrum-half and his time in the Ireland jersey will always be an immense source of pride for his family and the clubs that supported him on his journey. He also amassed an impressive CV as a coach and we were honoured to have him as a colleague in the IRFU from 2014 to present. He will be sorely missed.”

Galway journalist John Mulligan credited Tierney for his influence in creating "that legendary Ireland team of 2015" in a heartfelt post. Meanwhile, Nick Winkelman, Irish Rugby's head of athletic performance and science, lauded Tierney as "so full of energy, joy, and passion for our game and players."

i2-prod.mirror.co.uk/incoming/article29304343.ece/ALTERNATES/s1200d/0_GettyImages-1240416081.jpg

Stuart Hogg profile after Scotland & Lions full-back plots end of career..

ichef.bbci.co.uk/onesport/cps/800/cpsprodpb/ABD9/production/_128939934_hoggfinn.jpg

ichef.bbci.co.uk/onesport/cps/800/cpsprodpb/146BE/production/_129164638_20701507.jpg

Stuart Hogg has sprung many surprises on many unsuspecting defences in his time, but in announcing that he's retiring from rugby after the World Cup later this year he delivered a wow-factor moment to rank with any other in his 13-year Test career.

Like a bemused victim of his footwork and his pace, nobody saw this coming. The wear and tear on his body is the reason and it makes sense. A hundred caps and hundreds more club games on top over so many years take their toll.

He's only 30 and will be 31 by the time the World Cup swings around. That's not especially old - not in the era of a 37-year-old Johnny Sexton still tearing it up at the highest level - but Hogg is calling it early. He could probably carry on, but knows in his heart that he'd be a diminishing force and he doesn't want that. He knows he's physically not able to go on much longer. There's honesty in what he's done. And a lot of class.

Hogg is a compelling character. There are two Hoggs in many ways. There's the Hogg who appears in a room full of journalists with his guard up and his antennae twitching - and there's the Hogg you encounter in a different setting. One to one, he's a complex individual.

He came into the international scene as a 19-year-old in a team that couldn't attack their way out of a paper bag. He went on to become one of the most talented players the nation has ever produced, a fascinating amalgam of sensitivity and resilience, with deep sadness in his story. You can't catalogue Hogg's life and times without revisiting the night it could have all come to a tragic end.

He's been asked many times about the car accident that claimed the life of his friend Richard Wilkinson, how the two of them played rock, paper, scissors to see who got to sit in the front passenger seat, how the driver of the car got involved in a race, how the car overturned at 90mph and how Wilkinson died while Hogg, in the back seat, survived.

"At that age, you think you're invincible, don't you?" he says.

Listening to Hogg speak, you suspect there are depths to that awful experience and how it impacted on him that only those closest to him will know.

He's got Wilkinson's initials tattooed on his ribs. He does a W sign to the heavens every time he scores a try - and there's been 27 of those for Scotland, a record. He's spoken about how he wants to bring his friend with him on his journey and this is the only way he knows how. Richard Wilkinson has gone but in Hogg's mind, in a sense, he's never left.

Hogg was capped for the first time less than three years after the accident. A lightning quick full-back with brilliant footwork, a sumptuous offloading game and a huge menace as a try scorer, he was greeted with awe by Scottish fans because they hadn't seen anyone like him in an age.

ichef.bbci.co.uk/onesport/cps/800/cpsprodpb/1633/production/_128938650_hogg2012.jpg

Scotland's attack had been stultifyingly dull. In the four Six Nations championships before his debut, they'd failed to score a try in 50% of their games. They averaged 0.8 of a try per Six Nations Test in that run.

Hogg was a genuine rugby rock star. Scotland's first of the professional age. It would be another three years before Finn Russell played his first Six Nations match. For every minute of those three years the creative burden rested pretty much on Hogg and nobody else.

He brought adventure and skill. He offered hope. He was a Lion at 20. In 2016 and 2017 he won back-to-back Six Nations player of the championship awards as voted for by the public (Brian O'Driscoll is the only other player to have done that).

There are layers to him. A bravado and a vulnerability. The way he talks about his younger self in the wake of that first Lions tour as a kid in 2013 is severe. He said he let the selection go to his head, got too big for his boots, thought he'd out-grown his club, Glasgow Warriors, and angled for a move to Ulster. His Glasgow coach, Gregor Townsend, dropped him for the Pro12 final against Leinster as a result of his petulance. "I was sitting in the stand with a pint. It was rubbish and all my own doing."

What makes him fascinating is the twin sides of his personality. He is fond of his public image - the hair, the teeth, the wedding pictures in Hello magazine, - but when you get him talking, the barriers come down and somebody altogether more real emerges.

Getting invalided out of the 2017 Lions tour caused him untold angst. "It absolutely killed me," he said.

He fractured his cheekbone, then had his shoulder reconstructed, then tore a muscle in his gut, then did his shoulder again. In two years he played 19 games for Glasgow. Then there was his dalliance with social media as this was developing.

"The problem is me being the person I am is that I listen to what people have to say. I could get 99 brilliant comments and one person will abuse me and that will be one that I focus on," he said a few years back.

"I know there are a lot of people who'll go in the changing room after a match and search for their name on social media. I was really bad for that. I was listening to all these external voices and trying to prove them wrong. I was trying too hard, too uptight and it got worse and worse and the love of the game was gone."

How many sports people speak about their own frailties in that way? When Leinster knocked Exeter out of the Champions Cup in 2021, Hogg said that he played "like an absolute clown". The self-analysis, at times, has been more brutal than any pundit could muster on their angriest day.

There's been turbulence, but there's been glory. A Magners League win with Glasgow in 2015, a European Cup and Premiership double with Exeter in 2020, three Lions tours, captain of his country on the day they broke an 18-year hoodoo when winning in Wales, captain again when they won in Paris for the the first time in 22 years, captain once more when they conquered Twickenham for the first time in 38 years.

The loss of the Scotland captaincy last year is just another dimension. Hogg and five others went out drinking in Edinburgh on a Saturday night when they should have been back at camp preparing for the trip to Dublin a week later.

As captain, the criticism alighted on Hogg (and Russell). His truculent post-match press conference did him no favours. In a less confrontational setting, Hogg might have handled it a whole lot differently.

He has been quietly effective rather than barnstormingly brilliant this season. Blair Kinghorn has been excellent off the bench, a ready-made replacement in the post-Hogg era.

What has always been obvious from the start is his deep love of Scotland and the pride he feels when playing for his country. This is all he's ever wanted to do and be.

He has one last hurrah in France. It's going to be brutally hard, but for everything he has done, he deserves a thunderous farewell.

ichef.bbci.co.uk/ace/standard/480/cpsprodpb/0F99/production/_128939930_hogg1.jpg

Wasps: RFU withdraws offer of Championship place for 2023-24 season..

ichef.bbci.co.uk/onesport/cps/800/cpsprodpb/EDE3/production/_129599806_ww.jpg

The Rugby Football Union has withdrawn its offer to Wasps of a place in the Championship for 2023-24.

The RFU says the groundless club, currently based in Henley-in-Arden, have failed to hit a deadline to confirm commitments made when the licence was first approved in December.

The former Premiership side will now be placed "at the bottom of the playing pyramid" in English rugby.

The current bottom level in the English pyramid is the 10th tier.

Assuming twice former European champions Wasps, originally a north-west London side, are still considered to be based in the Midlands that would put them in either Counties 4 Midlands West (North) or Counties 4 Midlands West (South).

Wasps' application to return to professional rugby for the 2023-24 season in the Championship was given approval by the RFU on 16 December, the same day that fellow Midlands side Worcester's was rejected.

But the offer made to Wasps was subject to a number of conditions being met.

An RFU statement said: "These included evidencing payment to rugby creditors and putting in place suitable governance structures including a majority independent board and a process for managing risk.

"The RFU was also concerned about the lack of progress engaging coaching staff and players.

"The club stated that it could not meet these commitments, recommit to participating in the Championship in 2023-24 or engage staff of players until further finance was secured. "

Adding to your post - London Irish: Premiership club served winding-up petition by HMRC..


ichef.bbci.co.uk/onesport/cps/800/cpsprodpb/FA4D/production/_129977046_shutterstock_editorial_13845122i.jpg

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 4pm on Tuesday 6th 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.

An American consortium is in discussions to take over the the club, who have debts in the region of £30m, but has yet to provide proof of funds to the RFU, as well as other documentation needed for the purchase to be approved.