04 May 2023 , 08:51
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Exeter boss Rob Baxter has demanded to know whether Chiefs’ game on Saturday against crisis club London Irish will go ahead.
The Exiles appear to be teetering on the brink of financial collapse after the April wage bill was not paid by the US consortium linked with a takeover.
Irish, who continue to promote Saturday’s home Premiership clash on their social media channels, have left not only their own fans in the dark.
"Here and now we have got to have some confirmation the game is going ahead,” said Baxter. “I really hope it does and things settle down. I don’t know any more than you do right now.”
Worcester experienced a series of false promises over salary payments before they followed Wasps into insolvency earlier this season.
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Premiership Rugby chief executive Simon Massie-Taylor insists he has been given assurances by Irish’s prospective buyers that “they’re going to get the deal done pretty quickly”.
But that is of little consolation to players and staff at a club with bills and mortgages to pay. Reports last night suggested Declan Kidney's team could boycott Saturday's game unless overdue wages are paid by today.
London Irish players deeply unhappy with situationLondon Irish survived another period of upheaval in 1999 when merging with London Scottish and Richmond to create what was billed as the Premiership's first "super club”.
Richmond and Scottish soon did their own thing and Irish moved from Sunbury to Reading, where they remained until switching to Brentford in 2020.
That was supposed to launch them into a profitable new era but it has not worked out at all like that.