Worcester Warriors will return as a club as part of an expanded Championship of 14 teams with a raft of names already having received conditional offers to play for the regenerated side for next season.
At a press conference at Sixways Stadium – Worcester’s base during their time in the Gallagher Premiership and their future Championship home, too – the Rugby Football Union’s tier two board, alongside Warriors owner Chris Holland, green-lit the return of a club which went to the wall in October 2022.
Worcester will form part of a revamped Championship next season, but the two other “phoenix clubs”, Wasps and London Irish, will not be joining them. The league will comprise the current 12 Championship clubs alongside the one promoted club from National League One as well as the Warriors.
It is understood that Wasps, which is also owned by Holland, and the Exiles are still some way off fully fledged returns. Other National League One sides such as Birmingham Moseley, Plymouth Albion, Rams and Richmond have already been assessed against the league’s minimum requirements and have expressed an interest in joining the league in the future.
In order to have their request to join next season’s Championship accepted, Worcester had to go through what Holland described as “a very detailed and challenging process; three months of going to the dentist, effectively” to prove that the club had met the minimum operating standards and growth requirements to parachute into the second tier of English rugby.
Worcester have committed to paying off the financial debts to rugby creditors left by the previous owners as well as the DCMS’s Covid recovery loan. Had they not agreed to reimburse the rugby creditors, the Warriors would have to have started from the bottom of the English rugby pyramid just as London Welsh and Richmond did when they fell into administration in the 1990s and 2010s.
“What we demanded of Worcester was more than any other club which is currently in tier two,” said Simon Gillham, chair of the tier two board. “We demanded conditions and did not allow them any wriggle room. As a result of that, they have provided us with a substantial financial guarantee, which is currently in an RFU special account – I think that is a first in English rugby, in terms of financial discipline and assurance.
“The second, very important point, is that Worcester Warriors have committed to paying off financial debts left by the previous owners to rugby creditors; that is an extremely important point. They have also made substantial payments to the administrators and entered into an agreement with relevant parties which will result in the money owed to DCMS and HMRC all being paid back.
“The long discussions were intense and lively in the tier two board and we have discussed every pro and every con in detail. There have been some difficult conversations with unsuccessful clubs but I’d like to say how much they’ve taken place in the spirit of rigour and mutual respect, which bodes well for the future.”
Telegraph Sport understands that Matt Kvesic, the former England flanker, is set to return to the club for a third spell. Kvesic, 32, began his professional career with Worcester before returning for two seasons in 2020 until the club went into administration. He has since played for Zebre and Coventry. Josh Bassett, the Leicester wing formerly of Wasps, is also understood to be in negotiations with the Warriors for next season.
Kyle Hatherell, another former Worcester back-row now at the Tigers, has also been linked with a return to Sixways although Telegraph Sport understands that move is unlikely to happen. Other names mentioned include former Worcester prop Nick Schonert, recently released by Sale Sharks, along with Leicester back-row Matt Rogerson.
Regarding recruitment – with former Leicester defence guru Matt Everard taking up the role of head coach – Holland said: “You will understand that we were unable to make any formal contracts. We have been busy since Christmas, we have a kit sponsor, we have got a large selection of names and a large selection of conditional offers out there, so we will not have a problem with putting out a quality team.”
Holland added that the money for the Worcester reboot comes from the use of the artificial pitch at Sixways as a multi-sport facility, as well as continuing its conference usage. Holland has invested his own cash with the rest coming from sponsorship, ticketing and other commercial interests. The owner of Worcester and Wasps would not be drawn on a figure for the reboot, settling on “a lot”.
Holland can remain as the dual owner of both Worcester and Wasps until the latter re-enters the English rugby pyramid – and, indeed, if they do. At that moment, RFU regulations dictate that if one person owns 100 per cent of one club, they can only own a maximum of 25 per cent of another.
In terms of the revamped Championship, Gillham, who has spent over 20 years in professional rugby on the board at French club Brive, would not rule out a name change for next season and reiterated the belief that promotion and relegation is a vital element in English rugby. Gillham also reiterated his hope that a joint television deal between the Premiership and the Championship – like the Top 14 and ProD2 in France - was achievable “in the medium term”.
