Hugh Godwin tracks the movements of all 47 players at the time of administration – and speaks to a handful about life after Worcester
On Saturday afternoon, a small-scale get-together of Worcester Warriors players is scheduled.
Retelling old stories, remaking old bonds, and taking the odd beer. After travelling around England, Andrew Kitchener, Justin Clegg, Joe Morris, and Kyle Hatherell will assemble at Ashton Gate to see Bristol vs. Saracens, a match that will also include five other former Warriors: Noah Heward, Joe Batley, Jay Tyack, James Williams, and Gareth Simpson.Kitchener says to me, “On a social side, we’re keeping in touch and trying to do stuff because we really did get on as a group.” “We’ve never had the most talented team at Worcester. However, we got along well, which occasionally allowed us to punch above our weight.
Throughout seven seasons, Kitchener—a former second rower for England Under-20—played more than 80 times for Worcester. The final of those seasons was cut short, lasting only four matches over the course of a very unpleasant few weeks in the late summer of 2022.
Following a tale of conflicting signals and sinister whispers regarding the actions of the team’s owners, Colin Goldring and Jason Whittingham, the business that was paying the players was put into administration, and every member of the team and staff lost their jobs. Kitchener had 26 years old.
Kitchener remembers, “The hardest part was that I’d been at Worcester since I was 14.” “I had developed strong friendships with many of the players, and to have those dissolve practically overnight as we all went our separate ways…
“I understood later that I truly appreciated the relationships you form and the idea of playing with your friends, not simply other rugby players. It really was a shame to lose that.
Sixways, Worcester’s stadium, has been largely empty since the Warriors’ thrilling 39-5 victory over Newcastle on September 24, 2022, the team’s final game.
It has been deleted, therefore you won’t find it in the Premiership’s online records. Furthermore, the goal of this essay is not to point fingers at what went wrong or the previous futile attempts to turn the club around. It is about what happens to players when the mathematics don’t add up in rugby.
Worcester were the first to depart, but Wasps, London Irish, and Jersey would all fall victim to financial difficulties eventually. According to 27-year-old tighthead prop Jack Owlett, “there was a disbelief it could go that far.” “And then it actually did.”
It was quite simple for the in-demand types of current and future internationals, as well as others who were appealing to other teams: agree to a new deal and go on.
The fly-half Fin Smith moved to Northampton and then England; the Scotland and Lions wing Duhan van der Merwe went back to Edinburgh; Batley and Heward went to Bristol; Ted Hill and Ollie Lawrence went to Bath; Curtis Langdon moved to Montpellier and then Northampton; Seb Atkinson and Alex Hearle went to Gloucester; and Francois Venter went to the Sharks in his
The entire back Following a diversion to Bath, Jamie Shillcock played for Mitsubishi Dynoboars in Japan before joining Leicester Tigers.
To accommodate Owlett’s rugby, his pregnant wife had recently relocated her solicitor work to the Midlands. For six weeks, he stayed on his brother-in-law’s couch in London so that he could network and smell out possible opportunities.
A reflection of the realism that has permeated English rugby in recent years, he had played for Exeter, Cornish Pirates, Wasps, and Worcester while earning a degree in business and management from Exeter University and gaining real-world experience as a special constable in three different police departments.
In addition to playing part-time football for Blackheath in National One, the third division, he currently works as a fixed-income broker for BGC Partners in Canary Wharf, London. Sienna, his daughter, is a year old. “At that time, rugby was the riskier opportunity for me,” says Owlett, “but I had offers to go to France or Italy for six months.”
Upon tracking the movements of all 47 players during the administration period, it becomes evident how much of a displacement there is.
Perry Humphreys plays for Old Glory DC in the USA. In June 2022, Worcester awarded him a new contract, making him one of seven players to do so after the team defeated London Irish on the road in the Premiership Cup the month before. Humphreys had 26 tries in 110 appearances for Worcester.
Harri Doel, a 22-year-old back-three player, played for Scarlets and Ospreys for the shortest time before turning pro with Llandovery while working for the family business in Llangadog.
beneath. The rugby community was horrified when he revealed how he became homeless after the property where academy players lived was repossessed because the mortgage was past due.
After participating in Worcester’s Premiership Cup match against Gloucester in September 2022—where the players assumed they were defending their title—Wynn slipped three tiers to Chester and completed a bricklaying course. After that, he played in North Wales for RGC, and most recently, he was in the Championship with Caldy.
University players Jack Forsythe and Theo Mayell, who play in the back row, participated in last month’s BUCS final between Exeter and Loughborough.
Along with Ben Earl and Alex Mitchell, lock-flanker Clegg and centre Will Butler were finalists for the 2017 England Under-20 World Championship; Clegg is now a lawyer, and Butler has been
He currently shares an apartment in Finsbury Park with a friend and works as a data analyst for YES Energy in Waterloo, London, forecasting power demand.
During his lunch break, he strolls through Finsbury Park and considers the world of rugby, which is a world of golden details and everyday care: “I don’t really miss it,” he declares. “I never considered myself to be one of those people who had an intense love for rugby and that it was all I wanted to do.”
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