The measure of how much rugby union in England depends on the international game was laid bare this week.
It arrived in the form of an independent report – not under the aegis of either the RFU or Premiership Rugby – which confirmed that seven of the remaining 10 Premiership clubs have insolvent balance sheets.
Put simply, it means that those clubs do not have enough assets to pay all their debts due to their negative net worth.
This situation is no revelation, because before the collapse of three Premiership clubs in late 2022 – Wasps, Worcester and London Irish – there were reports that th...