Sometimes it is not the iceberg’s fault. Had the captains of some of English club rugby’s largest vessels been more focused on avoiding this season’s multiple shipwrecks they could easily have steered a more prudent course. Hindsight always helps but if your outgoings constantly exceed your income you are bound to sink eventually, as Worcester, Wasps and now London Irish can testify.
Most painful for those most deeply affected, perhaps, is that even the most myopic of lookouts could recognise this ever-present threat. Yet for whatever reason – arrogance, selfishness, greed, complacency, poor governance – the clubs and their governing body remained in thrall to the same old flawed model. Rich benefactor equals rugby success, right? Not if they ignore the basic tenets of sound business practice it won’t.
