CHRIS FOY: Wasps are now more and it is a bleak moment for English rugby
CHRIS FOY: Wasps are now more after RFU withdraw offer Championship place and it’s a sombre moment for English rugby… the two-time European champions were synonymous with the giants of the sport
The shock is seismic. In one fell swoop, the landscape of English rugby has changed radically and brutally. Wasps are no more. Away. A great name in the sport has been lost.
Even in this season of turbulence and turmoil, this is hard to comprehend. When the troubled but cherished club went bankrupt last autumn under a mountain of debt, there were soon encouraging sounds about an impending recovery. Saviors appeared, or so it seemed.
But those who wanted to reanimate wasps have been unable to find a way to do so. For months they have searched for a solution, but the numbers just don’t add up.
No doubt there has been some financial mismanagement leading up to this point, but the rugby community will not mourn the loss of a company or even a ‘brand’. Instead, there will be an acute sense of sadness at the grim demise of a team with so much history and success, a proud culture and a nomadic spirit that shone through so many glorious years.
Wasps will be missed. They leave a gaping hole. This is the club that won four premier league titles between 2003 and 2008 and conquered Europe twice. This is the club synonymous with giants of the sport such as Lawrence Dallaglio, Warren Gatland and Shaun Edwards.
Wasps’ license to compete in the championship next season has been revoked by the RFU
Some players, including Brad Shields, had to find new clubs after the club’s demise
Wasps must now start from the bottom of the rugby pyramid after removing their shock
It is the club of Josh Lewsey, Joe Worsley, Simon Shaw, Paul Sackey and – in his last years – Phil Vickery. It is the club of Rob Howley and Raphael Ibanez, James Haskell and Joe Launchbury, Danny Cipriani and Christian Wade, Jack Willis and Dan Robson.
Those are just a few. So many test stars have been made – most of them for England – on a modest training ground in Acton, west London. It became a formidable factory of homegrown talent and the basis for several epic domestic and continental campaigns, by some of the best clubs ever seen in the professional era of English rugby.
Wasps was the club of Acton and Sudbury, Shepherd’s Bush, High Wycombe and eventually Coventry – where an ambitious move brought huge crowds and hope for a bright future. But it was all built on sand; too many free tickets and then an ill-fated bond arrangement that created unbearable debt.
It is a gloomy and miserable moment. A valued and productive sports institution has been wiped off the map. Those who remember the great days when Dallaglio and Co dominated all newcomers will struggle to come to terms with how the once mighty fell into the abyss.