The news that one Worcester Warriors team is still playing has probably slipped under the radar for most supporters. However the Worcester Warriors Women Centre of Excellence team still has one more match to play, against Sale Sharks this coming Saturday 13th April. Many of you will have seen and heard Benny Williams speak with such passion at our launch event in December. Benny is the Head of the Women's Pathway for Warriors and has been at the club for the last 5 years, having studied at the University of Worcester. She has managed to arrange a final fixture for her team after they missed out on a planned showdown against Exeter Chiefs in February due to adverse weather conditions.
The girls are delighted to have the opportunity to wear the Worcester Warriors shirts for one final time; the game is to be played at Sale FC with kick-off arranged for 11am. Amongst those representing Warriors will be Worcester's three England U-18 representatives, Haineala Lutui, Natalee Evans, and Sarah Parry (photo). They will be hot-footing it from this week's U-18 Six Nations Championship in Colwyn Bay where England finished with a Triple Crown, a late late draw against Italy (thank you Natalee for the conversion to tie the scores!) but defeat to France who finished as Grand Slam champions.
The RFU's Women's Performance Pathway has included club-based Centres of Excellence since 2018 and they have been an integral part in assessing, supporting and developing U18 female players on their rugby journey.
All good things come to an end however, and the RFU recently announced their plans to change the domestic pathway for U-18 girls from the beginning of the 2024-25 season. The changes will see the formation of nine Player Development Group centres across the country. These will be centrally funded by the RFU but will also receive financial input from Sport England and the British & Irish Lions. Locally our PDG will now take players from the North Midlands, Gloucestershire and Warwickshire RFUs.
WWST are delighted to have been able to help finance the trip up to Greater Manchester. We wish the team the very best of luck for their final game.
INSOLVENCY UPDATES
In previous posts we shared the information that Leonard Curtis are the appointed administrators for Worcester Warriors Women Ltd. After further correspondence we have received a verdict on what can be expected for creditors (including Season Ticket Holders and Millennium Club Members):
"Your claim will rank as unsecured in the order of priority. Having said that, and based on the asset realisations to date, the Joint Liquidators do not anticipate that there will be sufficient funds to enable a dividend to be paid to any class of creditor.
Should this position change and funds become available, creditors will be contacted under separate cover."
Clearly, this won't come as a surprise to anyone but at least we can now put this one to bed.
One that isn't quite ready to nod off however, is the matter of WWST's complaint against Begbies Traynor Group for what we perceived to be their lack of due diligence in investigating the finances of Atlas Worcester Warriors. This was initially "screened" by the Insolvency Gateway to establish whether there was any need for escalation to a Regulatory Investigation Process. We were under the impression until recently that this had happened already but, having chased up a ruling it transpires that our complaint had been filed as "actioned" when this was not the case. On review, the Insolvency Gateway officer has now passed the matter onwards to the Insolvency Practitioner Association. We have been awaiting the appointment of a Regulatory Officer since March 25th.
This is somewhat frustrating but, as it has no particular bearing on the future of Worcester Warriors, we will focus our energies elsewhere.
WWST EVENTS
The trip to Butts Park Arena to watch Coventry take on Bedford Blues on 20th April is now sold out (although there may be potential to increase capacity if anyone has missed out on tickets - trust@wwst.co.uk).
Tickets are still available for the Hartpury v Caldy game on 4th May, which will include transport down the M5. This will probably prove to be the last "rugby away day" we organise this season as there hasn't been much appetite for the Welsh "Judgement Day."
As the rugby season begins to draw to a close, we will be looking at organising other events and get togethers. In the meantime, keep your fingers and toes crossed that Worcester Warriors will have a part to play in the new Professional Game Partnership.
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