11-team league leaves Leicester without a home game for 50 days

Defending Gallagher Premiership champions Leicester are set to be hit hard in the pocket in the coming weeks as the sudden reduction of the league to just eleven teams has blown a hole in their home fixtures schedule. Wasps and Worcester had been pencilled in to play at Mattioli Woods Welford Road in the coming weeks but both matches have now been shelved after those clubs were suspended by the RFU for falling into administration.

Leicester were set to the Warriors on November 5, but that match was binned last week when the RFU confirmed that the would-be visitors were suspended for the remainder of the 2022/23 season and were automatically relegated to the Championship for next season.

Now a second home game has been lost as the October 23 visit of Wasps will not be happening after they were suspended by the RFU on Wednesday following a training ground meeting with players and staff where they were informed that the club’s cash-flow crisis would see them enter administration in the next few days.

The consequence of losing both home matches will mean that Steve Borthwick’s Leicester will now go seven weeks without staging a Premiership match at Welford Road. Having hosted Sale last Saturday in their October 8 round five match, they must now wait until Sunday, November 27, when they welcome London Irish in round eleven before they run out again in front of their fans – a 50-day gap.

Having attracted attendances of 18,106 and 20,344 for their previous home matches against Newcastle and Sale, the loss of these upcoming games with Wasps and Worcester will make a huge dent in the finances at Leicester who now only have an away game at Harlequins this Sunday and then a bye week in round eight at the end of October to keep them occupied at a time in the season when there is also a one-week during England’s Autumn Nations Series.

Unlike Exeter, who quickly announced a friendly with a Bristol XV this Saturday when it was confirmed their league game with Wasps was off, there has been no indication from Leicester as to what they will do with their free dates now that Wasps and Worcester won’t be coming to Welford Road as planned.

Leicester do have a home Premiership Rugby Cup match scheduled for next Wednesday, October 19, against Wasps but that tournament doesn’t hold a candle to their money-making Premiership operation as just 4,000 were in attendance at Welford Road last month when the Tigers played Wasps in a midweek group game.