Latest news with #WorcesterWarriors
Times
2 days ago
- Business
- Times
R360 league delusional and commercially unsustainable — TNT chief
TNT Sports and Premiership Rugby chiefs have taken aim at the proposed rebel league, R360, calling it 'delusional' and 'commercially unsustainable'. TNT have said that they will not consider broadcasting the new competition, which is slated to begin next year, while Premiership executives feel they are being 'gaslit' by those trying to start it. Promotional material for R360, which has been seen by The Times, talks about how much club rugby is struggling on and off the pitch, an analysis Premiership figures no longer recognise. Premiership Rugby says it has one million new fans, including a 30 per cent growth in supporters between the ages of 18 to 34, and has also grown its television audience on TNT by the same amount. It has signed a fresh contract with the broadcaster until 2031. At stadiums, there have been 30 sold-out matches this season — compared to 18 last year and 13 the year before that — and this weekend's Gallagher Premiership final between Leicester Tigers and Bath at Twickenham has long been a sell-out. The Bath-Bristol play-off semi-final last weekend had the most viewers of any Friday night match in TNT Sports history, with hundreds of thousands of fans tuning in. Therefore, they are not prepared to engage with R360 as they believe in the strength of their product on and off the field, and think they have drawn a line under a period of instability that resulted in three top-flight clubs — Worcester Warriors, Wasps and London Irish — going bust in 2022. While some Premiership executives have welcomed the disruption R360 is causing, they will not entertain any conversations with a new competition that threatens to devalue theirs. Particularly scathing about R360's plans was Andrew Georgiou, the president and managing director of Warner Brothers Discovery — the company that owns TNT Sports. 'I've been involved in sport for 25 years. I can't tell you how many of these PowerPoint presentations I've come across my desk with people who were absolutely certain that what they had on that page was going to be the new thing,' Georgiou said. 'No one's come to us and made a presentation, no one's told us what the new format is, no one told us what the new schedule is. But the one question that I think should be asked is, how are they going to grow the revenue by putting this event on? 'Where's the money coming from? The media industry is going through a massive generational change. So if these folks believe that they are going to grow the revenue by putting this thing on, I think they're delusional. 'What it will do is further complicate what is already a well-functioning rugby ecosystem. The fact that it's being likened to LIV Golf, I think is a perfect analogy. It's a perfect comparator to what this is really going to be. Commercially unsustainable. Lions preview show This Thursday, Owen Slot, chief sports writer at The Times, will host an unmissable discussion about rugby's most iconic touring team. Joining him will be former Lions legends Lawrence Dallaglio and Sam Warburton, alongside Times journalists Stephen Jones and Mark Palmer. 'I think you've got to park what players have to do versus actually, what's the long-term sustainable model that this thing's going to create and does it actually grow the ecosystem or not? And I'm thoroughly unconvinced.' Asked if TNT would therefore not consider broadcasting R360 if it came to life, Georgiou said: 'You bet.' R360, run by a group including the England World Cup winner Mike Tindall and former Bath director of rugby Stuart Hooper, plans to launch in 2026. It takes inspiration from F1 and cricket's Indian Premier League, and wants to establish a grand prix-style travelling league that would feature eight men's franchises and a four-team professional women's competition. They have signed players to contracts already, including a number of those selected by Andy Farrell for the British & Irish Lions squad, which will be activated if the R360 franchise owners can meet broadcasting rights and team ownership targets. They intend to pay the world's top 40 players more than £1million. The organisers have received bids for their teams from Premier League, Formula 1 and NFL team owners and are looking to tap into the expertise of franchise owners and investors from some of the biggest sports competitions in the world in order to transform rugby. Simon Massie-Taylor, the chief executive of Premiership Rugby, believes that the work his organisation has done to right itself — from establishing financial monitoring groups and more stringent salary cap regulations, to signing a better Professional Game Partnership with the RFU and improved marketing, branding and promotion of the league — means the league can see off this attack from R360. 'The R360 thing is a distraction, sure, but it's not grounded in the same amount of work and detail that we've been doing,' he said. 'Rugby needs roots, it doesn't need pop-ups. Without those roots, it's very difficult to understand how their system could ever work. 'That one person who's going to turn up on a go out on the field, there's a whole system, a whole team, a whole grassroots network that needs to develop that person beyond just rocking up. 'I'd be worried if players are counting on that [contracts they have signed] because they may miss out on genuine opportunities that exist within their club. Things need sanctioning for a start and things need money coming through the door before these people can actually get paid.'
BBC News
6 days ago
- Business
- BBC News
Worcester sign Newcastle full-back Brown
Newcastle Falcons full-back Louis Brown has become the latest player to join Worcester Warriors ahead of the former Premiership club's return to who can also play on the wing, joined Falcons from Coventry on a two-year deal ahead of the 2023-24 his two campaigns with Newcastle, Brown appeared 20 times and scored five made nine of those in the Premiership this term as the Falcons finished bottom of the table, 16 points adrift of Exeter Chiefs."I'm looking forward to being part of a team that gets Worcester back where they belong," Brown said the vison of head coach Matt Everard and the club's "incredible" fan base made moving to Warriors "an easy decision". Brown is the second player to join Worcester this week following the arrival of former England back Billy Twelvetrees, who came out of retirement to take up a player-coach role at back Juan Gonzalez, Leicester Tigers prop Tim Hoyt and Exeter Chiefs prop Billy Keast have also signed up for next club have also brought in Cornish Pirates full-back/wing Will Trewin, Warriors legend Matt Kvesic, former Wales scrum-half Lloyd Williams, Saracens prop Fraser Balmain and Dragons fly-half Will are preparing for next season's new-look Championship as professional rugby returns to Sixways for the first time since the club went into administration in 2022.
The Guardian
7 days ago
- Business
- The Guardian
Bristol tap into class divide in bid to shock ‘posh' rivals and title favourites Bath
When the Rugby Football Union launched its rebrand of the Championship last month, Henry Pollock was put front and centre, made the poster boy by virtue of his five loan appearances for Bedford Blues. You can hardly blame the union for trying to capitalise on the hype but there are better examples of players who epitomise the strengths of the second tier. None more so than James Williams, Bristol's inside-centre who at 28 has taken the road less travelled to the Premiership semi-finals. Williams began his career at Birmingham Moseley in National League One before moving to Hartpury. He joined Worcester in 2018 but managed just one appearance, signed with Sale a year later and appeared just three times and when Covid hit he was released by the Sharks. Soon Williams found himself arranging a return to Hartpury, all the while juggling a job renovating flats in Bristol. For 18 months Williams would set off for Gloucester at 5am, be on the training field at 7am until 8.30am before dashing back to begin work an hour later. In the 2021-22 campaign, he finished as the Championship's top points scorer and Pat Lam soon came calling. 'I actually honestly really enjoyed it,' says Williams. 'They were busy days, obviously you were a bit knackered but it's a testament to Hartpury and the programme they ran, it was very accommodating for the boys who worked. We had a few teachers in the squad and they had to leave at 8am so they'd shoot straight off. The rugby-work balance was pretty savage. 'The bottom line is that I love playing rugby. Even if I didn't make it to the Premiership, I'd still be playing rugby at whatever level for as long as possible. I always thought I'd keep going until something comes along, my dad would always say the cream rises to the top. 'I've been doing a bit of coaching at Dings and they're National One and there is some raw talent out there. Boys are actually class and you think, 'you could be a Premiership player', but it's just having the opportunity and having the coaches who put a bit of time into you. I say it to the academy boys who got released last year, you just have to play rugby and as long as you're playing it and you're enjoying it, you're probably going to be playing quite well so just keep going with it.' Williams admits to suffering 'imposter syndrome' when first joining Bristol, arriving into a changing room filled with the kind of superstars that was once the Bears' calling card. In many ways, however, Williams typifies Bristol's move away from big-spending galaticos. Having spent much of his career at fly-half, he slots in seamlessly outside AJ MacGinty and allows Benhard Janse van Rensburg to do his thing in the No 13 channel. It helps to have firepower such as Gabriel Ibitoye outside him but Williams has thrived at Ashton Gate since Bristol opted to reprise their swashbuckling approach towards the end of last season. 'When I first came into the changing room it was like, crikey, there are some big names around me and Pat has given me the responsibility to drive these boys,' he adds. 'This year I feel like I've shaken that a little bit and people do listen to what I say and I if I can be a solid seven or eight out of 10 most weeks then I know the rest of the boys will be going pretty well outside me if I can just be solid and make good decisions on the ball.' Bristol sealed their semi-final trip to Bath on Friday night with a thumping win over Harlequins last Saturday. Results in April threatened to derail Bristol's season but victory over Bath in Cardiff - albeit against a second string side - put the Bears back on track. They head to the Rec as underdogs but Lam has been quick to point out that since their promotion to the Premiership in 2018 they have won 11 of their 14 matches against their rivals. Sign up to The Breakdown The latest rugby union news and analysis, plus all the week's action reviewed after newsletter promotion Bristol have not sold their full allocation of tickets with Lam again quick to stoke the flames, suggesting that Bath's 'huge' ticket prices for a stadium with sub-par facilities - 'Even my wife was keen to go and when I went to look at the tickets I said: 'Love, you don't want to get drenched in that rain' - was to blame. And evidently the Bears are tapping into the class divide that separates these two cities, just 12 miles apart. 'It is honestly bred into Bristolians about the fact that Bath, down the road, is seen as an upper class city and they're seen as being quite posh is probably the word,' says Williams. 'Bristolians are probably proud of the fact that they're not like that, it's a working class city and again that is in the blood of the Bristolian lads. When you come to this club everyone understands early on that Bristol v Bath is a humongous fixture, not just for rugby but for the wider communities in terms of what the cities represent. That definitely gets played on and you can see the passion within the boys, getting really emotional talking about it in the week and before the game.'
South Wales Argus
04-06-2025
- General
- South Wales Argus
The key dates as Newport County build to League Two season
The Exiles will travel to Sixways Stadium on Saturday, July 12 (kick-off 3pm) to take on opponents from Southern League Premier Central. The game in the West Midlands, at a ground more associated with the reborn rugby union side Worcester Warriors, is another on a plastic pitch. Cymru South Pontypridd United have announced they will host David Hughes' County at USW Sports Park on Tuesday, July 1 shortly after the first team squad return for pre-season training under the new-look management team. The trip to Worcester takes place before an away game at National League South Weston-super-Mare, who several members of the squad will be pleased to know have a grass pitch. That encounter in Somerset is on Tuesday, July 15 (kick-off 7.15pm) as new boss Hughes works towards the start of League Two on the first weekend of August. The EFL clubs will learn their schedules for the season at midday on Thursday, June 26. The regionalised group stage draw for the EFL Trophy - which now contains League One Cardiff City - follows on the same day at 2.30pm, then at 4.30pm the Exiles will learn their League Cup, round one opponents (tie in the week of August 11). County are working on recruitment and retention after a disappointing 2024/25 when they finished in the final safe position in the fourth tier. Contract offers have been made to the experienced quartet of goalkeeper Nick Towsend, centre-back James Clarke, full-back/midfielder Shane McLoughlin and midfielder Aaron Wildig. The released and retained list was announced on May 16 and players must notify the club in writing within one month whether they accept 'their offer of re-engagement' or it will automatically lapse. KEY COUNTY DATES League Two fixtures – Thursday, June 26 (midday). EFL Trophy group stage draw – Thursday, June 26 (2.30pm). League Cup round one draw – Thursday, June 26 (4.30pm). Start of League Two – August 2/3. Final games of the regular season: May 2/3. SUMMER TRANSFER WINDOW Open until Tuesday, June 10 (7pm). Reopens: Monday, June 16. Transfer deadline day: Monday, September 1 (7pm). CONFIRMED FRIENDLIES Tuesday, July 1 – Pontypridd (away). Saturday, July 12 – Worcester City (away). Tuesday, July 15 – Weston-super-Mare (away).
Yahoo
02-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Twelvetrees comes out of retirement to join Worcester
Former England back Billy Twelvetrees has come out of retirement to join Worcester Warriors as a player-coach. Twelvetrees, who won 22 caps for England and played one game for the British and Irish Lions after being called up as a replacement in 2013, retired as a player last year to become a coach with Championship side Hartpury. Advertisement The 36-year-old becomes the Warriors latest signing ahead of their return to professional rugby next season, two-and-a-half years after going into administration. "Joining Worcester Warriors as a player-coach is a fantastic opportunity," said Twelvetrees. "I'm excited to be contributing both on and off the field, helping to develop talent and bring real energy to the squad. "It's a challenge I'm ready for and I can't wait to get started." Twelvetrees began his 17-year career with Bedford Blues before joining Leicester Tigers in 2009 where he won the Premiership in his first season. Advertisement The centre then moved to Gloucester in 2012 and made 273 appearances in 11 years with the Cherry and Whites. The move reunites Twelvetrees with former Leicester Tigers team-mate Matt Everard, who was appointed Warriors head coach in May. "Billy is one of those special people that after spending just a short amount of time with, you will never forget," said Everard. "Kind, incredibly hard-working and always has such a positive impact on people." Twelvetrees joins a number of new recruits at Sixways ahead of the club's return, including Uruguay back Juan Gonzalez, Leicester Tigers prop Tim Hoyt and Exeter Chiefs prop Billy Keast. Advertisement The club have also brought in Cornish Pirates full-back/wing Will Trewin, Warriors legend Matt Kvesic, former Wales scrum-half Lloyd Williams, Saracens prop Fraser Balmain and Dragons fly-half Will Reed.
