Wasps fuel comeback speculation with cryptic message

Wasps have raised hopes among their fans that they are about to follow London Irish and launch a return to playing after teasing an announcement on their official Facebook page over the weekend.

Wasps posted on Sunday morning, ‘The Rising has started. More to come’, in their official Facebook page’s first post since the death of Tom Voyce in December 2024.

It is over four years since the former PREM and European champions went into administration with debts of £95m, including more than £21m owed to public bodies.

Since then, there have been several false dawns over a potential return to playing, including in December 2022, when HALO22 Limited, a company owned by Christopher Holland, purchased the intellectual property, history and memorabilia of Wasps RFC.

They later claimed to have satisfied RFU requirements and would be back for the 2023-24 season, while two years after they entered administration, it was revealed that they had bought land in the South East near London to build a new stadium.

Holland is now the owner of Worcester Warriors, who returned to playing in the Rugby Champ, which they won at their first attempt last season. They suffered their first defeat of this season, 36-27, at Doncaster over the weekend.

The Sixways outfit went out of business in September 2022, a month before Wasps, the six-time champions of England and two-time champions of Europe, made a total of 167 players and club staff redundant.

Companies House records show that Wasps Rugby Football Club Ltd has one director, Derby solicitor James Timothy Dysterre-Clark, which only heightens the mystery.

Last month, London Irish said that they could be back in professional rugby as early as next season after Essex-based entrepreneur Steve Daniels’ Gamechanger Investments purchased the club’s name, brand and associated intellectual property.

Daniels vowed to put the club “firmly back on the rugby map” after outlining a potential return to the Champ, with Hazelwood, the club’s former training base in Sunbury-on-Thames, Surrey, among the options for a new home.