London Irish players demand insurance proof before agreeing to play Exeter

London Irish players have demanded proof they are covered by insurance before committing to taking to the field against Exeter on Saturday. The squad has also been advised that their contracts have been breached by the club’s failure to pay April’s wages and they will consider whether to take part in the match if they do not receive their overdue salaries.

Irish players and staff were due to be paid on Friday and after a series of delays were still waiting on Thursday for last month’s wages, the director of rugby, Declan Kidney, confirmed. With a US consortium hopeful of completing a takeover of the club, the delay has been put down to red tape, but no definitive timeframe on when wages will arrive has been given.

Against that backdrop, the squad met the Rugby Players’ Association on Thursday morning and are aware of their right to serve notice on the club. If players were to file breach-of-contract notices, London Irish would have 14 days to pay the players or they would be legally permitted to leave the club. In the short term, they are seeking proof they have the necessary medical insurance for Saturday’s match and are expecting outstanding wages to arrive.

“We’ve sought [insurance] assurances and there’s a bit of a process in place in terms of getting us the tangible evidence, which is what we’ve asked for,” said Matt Rogerson, the Irish captain. “With the game now approaching we’ve requested that we will be sent that information so we have a physical copy of it that we can see and rely on.

“At the moment we’ve had a verbal reassurance that’s in place, which goes so far as to say that the club believes that is all in place for us. The next step for us is for that to be reaffirmed with some physical evidence which