Former England hooker Steve Thompson

We need to return to amateur ways, says Thompson

By GARY FITZGERALD

Steve Thompson has voiced his “fears” for the future of rugby following London Irish becoming the third club to fall from Premiership grace inside nine months.
England’s World Cup-winning hooker suggests the club game “should never have gone professional” in 1995 on the back of an “unsustainable long-term business model”.
Thompson feels that in order to survive, top clubs may have to turn the clock back to the amateur days of vastly reduced salaries and the majority of players having separate jobs.
Like Wasps and Worcester, who both entered administration and were expel...

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