The Gallagher Premiership is simply not the same without the Worcester Warriors but there are hopes this traditional club could be on their way back to playing competitive rugby union again in the future.
With Chris Holland the current owner of the club, hopes remain that the club could return to action and feature in the Rugby Football Union’s tier two competition for the 2025/26 season.
Plenty Of Work To Be Done
Worcester Warriors were forced to cease competitive rugby union after they were suspended from the Gallagher Premiership in 2022 after a winding-up petition from HMRC. Worcester’s absence from this season will have been felt across the competition, in which Saracens are 13/8 to win the Grand Final this year with a bet on sports.
While Worcester’s neighbours 80 miles east in Northampton are 21/10 in the betting tips to win the battle to lift the trophy, the Warriors are facing their own fight to simply return to the field of play.
The Worcester Warriors Supporters Trust confirmed in February revealed there had been talks held with Holland over the state of play when it came to a possible return in 2025.
Work is believed to be going on in the background to balance the books and get the Warriors back to where they belong.
The Warriors were not the only side to suffer the fate of suspension from the Premiership, as Wasps were the other high-profile casualties of financial issues in English rugby.
Wasps’ moving from London to Coventry in 2014 brought added interest in rugby union to the West Midlands.
The loss of both clubs has brought a geographical void in the professional game between the likes of Northampton Saints and Leicester Tigers in the east and Gloucester, Bath and Bristol in the West Country.
Hope lingers for Worcester Return
The meeting between the Worcester Warriors Supporters Trust earlier this year suggested that significant progress had been made by the club’s owners since October 2023.
That was the month when rumours of a further potential sale had emerged.
Holland, who is also believed to still be the owner of Wasps, clearly has interests in both clubs and it remains to be seen if either club can make a return for the 2025/26 season.
Worcester has a long and rich history and it would be a massive boost to see the Warriors rise from the ashes and feature in competitive league rugby once again.
The club was founded all the way back in 1871 and news rocked the city when the team was suspended from playing top flight rugby.
Promoted from National Division One in 2003/04, the Warriors came on leaps and bounds in the professional game. Going on to finish as runners-up in the European Challenge Cup in the 2007/08 season just showed how far this club had come.
The Worcester Warriors story is hopefully one that is not over and work continues in the background to get this historic rugby institution back to where it belongs.