Cube bankrolled Worcester Warriors Women for five months, then pulled the plug

Worcester Warriors' women's side survived the collapse of the men's club at Sixways in 2022 only because Cube International stepped in with a funding deal in May 2023. The injection carried the team through the season to a sixth-place finish in the Premier 15s. Chairman Andy Moss said Cube committed 'with great ambition', underwriting the club on the expectation that whoever bought Sixways would buy the club too. But when the Atlas Group struck a deal at the beginning of May for what was left of the men's club, the women's team was not included.

On October 18, 2023, Cube ended the arrangement five months into a 10-year agreement and withdrew the club from all competitions, before the rebranded Premiership Women's Rugby had even started. Club director of rugby Jo Yapp called the news 'heartbreaking' and said it came 'out of the blue'. Staff were paid their October salaries but would receive nothing for November, with Cube working with the Rugby Players Association on the way forward.

Moss said the club cost about £1m a season and the rescue had been premised on commercial support that never materialised: a £50,000 fundraising drive raised 'a couple of thousand pounds', and attendances were negligible against the 6,000–20,000 crowds men's clubs draw. A management buyout then restructuring Cube's own finances could not include the rugby club because it had to prove it was a sustainable business in its own right. The only viable model, he said, was a wealthy benefactor like former owner Cecil Duckworth — 'those people, as far as I'm aware, don't exist'.

The club was withdrawn from the new Premiership Women's Rugby; staff were paid for October but not November, ending a £1m-a-season operation.

The 10-year commitment was built on the assumption that the Sixways buyer would take on the women's team; the Atlas deal excluded it from day one.

A £1m-a-season cost base was left standing on fundraising that demonstrably could not deliver — £50,000 targets drew a couple of thousand pounds.

With no gate revenue, no commercial partners and Wasps and London Irish also gone from the men's game, there was no realistic path to sustainability.

Cube's own management buyout required the club to be excluded, converting a soft commitment into an abrupt mid-competition exit.

A rescue built on an assumption — that the parent club's buyer would take the team too — needs that in writing before the season starts, or the exit lands mid-competition.

The club never played in the inaugural Premiership Women's Rugby season. Moss said several interested parties came forward after the withdrawal but 'didn't understand the enormity of running it'. The men's side's purchase by the Atlas Group — control of which had been taken over by Wasps owner Chris Holland — remained unsigned-off by the administrators with more than £1m still owed. Sixways, the club's former home, was hosting non-league football side Worcester Raiders.