Rugby league strives to step up amid Premiership’s collective crisis

I t was the English philosopher Francis Bacon who declared that the folly of one man is the fortune of another and as rugby union’s Premiership clubs continue to fall further into collective crisis, it would be little wonder if other sports are ready to take advantage – not least those in the opposite code, where expansion into union strongholds has always felt more like a dream than a reality.

That is still the case, even given last week’s demise of London Irish that followed on from Wasps and Worcester being kicked out of the league mid-season. But it feels like the door has perhaps been left ajar in the Midlands and London – not so much Worcester, where there is no professional league club – and the onus is now on the clubs there to seize the moment. Tens of thousands of rugby supporters have, in the sense of having a team to support, been in effect left homeless.

It may sound cold-hearted talking about league potentially exploiting the demise of others but the code has never been described as ruthless. “I think, and I hope, the game can take full advantage of what’s happened,” the chairman of Midlands Hurricanes, Mike Lomas, tells the Observer.

The Hurricanes are based in Birmingham and play in League 1, rugby league’s third professional tier, but they took over the professional franchise previously owned by the Coventry Bears in 2021. As such, they believe they have enough of a presence across the region to capitalise on Wasps’ woes.

In fact, Lomas argues they are already seeing an uptick in Midlands rugby league. “We’ve seen some uptake from Wasps fans about coming along to our upcoming fixtures,” Lomas says. “It’s not nice to see what’s happened to Wasps but we can’t pretend it’s not an opportunity to get more