London Irish have been pushed closer to the brink after being hit with a winding-up petition by HMRC, the news coming out on a day when the government two independent advisers in an effort to drag rugby union out of its financial crisis.
Irish are expected to be suspended from the Premiership on Tuesday and become the third club in the space of eight months to be kicked out of the league. The chances of the protracted takeover by a US consortium being completed before next Tuesday’s deadline are rated as slim with the Rugby Football Union still awaiting key information from buyers, as it has been for months. The initial deadline was last week but was extended by the RFU primarily to allow for players and staff to be paid May’s wages.
