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England rugby is in crisis. London Irish is the third Premiership club to go bust this season. London Irish have been suspended. This follows the demise of Wasps and the Worcester Warriors. England Rugby (RFU) removed London Irish from next season on the basis that the club is unable to guarantee payment for the 2023-2024 season.
The outcome means that Pumas will now be on the market. Lucio Cinti, Agustín Creevy, Facundo Gigena, Juan Martín González and Ignacio Ruiz played for the club in the recently completed 2022-2023 season. Some are certainties for the World Cup this year.
London Irish will not participate in any league in England next season. This means that the 2023-2024 English Premiership will be reduced from 13 to 10 teams. No team will be promoted from the second division, the RFU Championship.
England hosted Rugby World Cup 2015. The test side was eliminated in the pool stage. Vast improvement saw England winning their pool and reaching the final of Rugby World Cup 2019. English clubs Saracens and Exeter Chiefs were European Champions Cup winners in 2019 and 2020 respectively.
Toulouse won in 2021 and La Rochelle won the 2022 and 2023 Finals. France is preparing to host the Rugby World Cup later this year. France’s Top 14 Final last season saw Montpellier defeating Castres. Neither team reached the play-off’s this season. In addition, promotion relegation continues to be highly successful. Last weekend’s Access Match was a case in point as to why France’s professional rugby is a world apart from the rest.
