RUGBY UNION: Cabannes goes as Richmond sack 34

RICHMOND, THE Premiership One club plunged headlong into a financial crisis last week when Ashley Levett, their major investor, decided he had endured enough rugby politics to last him a lifetime, were yesterday reeling from a savage round of job and salary cuts imposed by the administration team charged with streamlining the business. Three front-line players - Laurent Cabannes, Dominic Chapman and Adrian Davies - were among 34 employees shown the door, while the rest of the squad found themselves contemplating wage reductions of between five and 10 per cent.

Anyone basking under the illusion that one of England's pioneering professional clubs had not hit the rocks with a fearful thump were disabused of that notion on Wednesday night when the administration team from Buchler Phillips, one of the United Kingdom's leading insolvency specialists, addressed the Richmond workforce. They painted a grisly picture of a business in free-fall and said serious sacrifices would have to be made simply to keep the ship afloat.

As a result, 11 members of the playing and coaching staff were made redundant, along with 23 colleagues from the ancillary departments. The casualties started at the very top: Cabannes, capped 49 times by France and one of the finest open-side flankers in world rugby during a heyday that extended well into the middle years of the decade, had been at the club only a matter of months after signing from Harlequins during the close season.

Chapman, capped by England last summer, and Davies, the former Wales outside-half, have struggled with injury this season but were considered integral parts of the Premiership squad.

Lee Manning, a senior member of the administration team, said the monthly wage bill had been slashed from pounds 230,000 to pounds 120,000 "in line with income expectations". He added: "The last few days have been extremely difficult and some tough decisions had to be made. We are confident that with these changes, the structure of the club will be attractive to potential new investors and that a successful Company Voluntary Arrangement can be achieved."

Levett, a multi-millionaire copper trader who now lives on the Continent, informed Richmond late last week that he was withdrawing his support after a three-year investment approaching pounds 8 million. Bitterly frustrated by interminable wrangling between the Premiership clubs, the Rugby Football Union and the organising body of the European Cup, he said he was unwilling to commit further funds to a game still unable to finalise an intelligible domestic structure.

Ironically, his move came within days of Richmond reaching the semi-finals of the Tetley's Bitter Cup by beating the favourites, Leicester, at the Madejski Stadium in Reading - the venue they have rented since local councillors refused them permission to develop their more familiar home at the Athletic Ground in south-west London. Equally ironically, the club expect their biggest ever crowd for tomorrow's Premiership game with Bath.

Meanwhile, Newcastle unveiled their new board yesterday in the wake of Sir John Hall's decision to turn his back on rugby. David Thompson, the information technology tycoon who has bought the reigning Premiership champions and their Kingston Park ground for the grand total of pounds 1, will act as chairman, with Paul Mackings as his chief executive and Rob Andrew as director of rugby. "I believe in the long-term viability of rugby, both in England and the north-east, and I intend to structure a long-term strategy for the next five years and beyond," he said.

On the international front, you might spare a thought for the poor bloody infantry. With the World Cup, a newly expanded Six Nations Championship, a full hand of Premiership and knock-out fixtures and, in all probability, a revamped European Cup, England's finest might reasonably have expected a millennial summer on the sun-lounger. Dream on. It emerged yesterday that Rugby Football Union officials were negotiating a two-match trip to the southern hemisphere, including full-on Tests in Australia and South Africa. Assuming agreement is reached there will be no prospect of the Premiership season being extended into mid-summer, as a number of club owners are urging.

Any tour next summer would fly in the face of recent RFU policy; England's international brigade were granted a rest in both 1992 and 1996 following the '91 and '95 World Cups. However, the volume of Test rugby has exploded since the dawning of professionalism almost four years ago and with loose home-and-away agreements between England and both Australia and South Africa in force, there is every likelihood of further trips south of the equator in 2002 and 2003.