Bristol's demise hits Irish hard

Bristol Chairman Arthur Holmes's decision to call in the receiver has left four Irish internationals - David Corkery, Paul Burke, Kevin Maggs and under-21 star Barry McConnell - in a predicament. All four must realistically seek employment elsewhere. The timing of the announcement is dreadful for all concerned but particularly so for Burke, who found out the bad news while on his honeymoon in Miami. He was to be Bristol's captain next season. The players were warned on Tuesday that the wage bill would have to be cut by £400,000 if the relegated club were to have any hope of surviving.

A shell-shocked squad met yesterday afternoon in Gloucester Cricket Club to discuss the situation. The initial feeling is that some players will be offered much-reduced wages if a new club is reformed out of the ashes to take Bristol's place in Premiership Two.

Irish flanker David Corkery, who owns a house in Bristol, was adamant that very few players would pursue that option. "The way things have happened I don't think anyone owes any loyalty to the club. It came as a great shock to many of us. There are people in far worse situations than mine."

Corkery admitted that the phone rang several times yesterday morning and that he was "considering several offers in Ireland and England". All things being equal, one suspects that the Cork-born flanker would favour a return to Munster - if financial considerations allowed.

Maggs was also sounded out by a couple of clubs but for Burke and McConnell, the very promising prop cum-hooker, the future is less assured. The situation presents an ideal opportunity for the IRFU to intercede, enjoy a public relations coup and underline their commitment to repatriating Irish players in England.

It will be interesting to note their stance on this issue. New Zealand-born centre Adam Larkin, who holds an Irish passport, considered moving to Ireland last season and may now do so if he could secure a provincial contract.

Holmes, the 74-year-old millionaire who injected over £1 million into the club, said: "I've got a nasty feeling that there will be a domino effect. Bristol is the first major club to go and I think others will follow. There's no money to be made in professional rugby and once some of the owners realise that they'll be gone like greased lightning.

"The biggest mistake they all made was to compare rugby with soccer. There isn't the mass support for rugby and yet the wages paid by a lot of clubs are ridiculous. It's a joke."

He added: "I'm devastated. After supporting this club for 60 years, it broke my heart to realise it had gone. I cried my eyes out. This is an end of an era. It's like waving goodbye to a very dear old friend."

Holmes, who in the last company accounts to April 1997 was owed £1.3 million, has also pointed the finger of blame for his club's demise at the players following the advent of professionalism in the game.

"I'm sickened by this professionalism," he told The Daily Mail. "What you have now are a load of mercenaries. They have no loyalty to any club and they're getting far too much."

He has warned the club's players, who yesterday expressed their concern that they might not be paid because of the financial difficulties, that he was not prepared to keep using his own personal fortune to keep the club afloat.

"I'm not going to pay them. If the receiver wants to pay them, that's up to him. " However, former British Lions and Wales scrum-half Robert Jones hit out at the Bristol directors over the collapse.

"We were never given the option to renegotiate our contracts or accept a cut in our pay," he claimed. "Had we been given that opportunity, maybe things might have been different."

And he insisted that Bristol's players are determined to line up against Exeter in their scheduled League opener on September 5th.

"As a squad of players and coaches we are fairly united in ensuring that there will be successful rugby in Bristol next season," said the former club captain.