All Blacks great Andrew Mehrtens part of consortium led by Formula One icon Eddie Jordan in purchasing London Irish

Ex-All Black Andrew Mehrtens (centre) last year rescued his old French side. Photo / Photosport

Former All Blacks first-five Andrew Mehrtens and Rugby World Cup-winning Springbok Bobby Skinstad have combined with an Irish investment fund to take control of another rugby club following last year’s rescue of French club Beziers.

London Irish rugby club have been bought out of administration by a consortium led by former Formula One team boss Eddie Jordan, it was announced overnight.

The Exiles were expelled from English rugby union’s top-flight Premiership in June 2023 because of unpaid wages and soon afterwards were put into administration by former owner Mick Crossan with debts of some £30 million ($66m).

They failed to meet a deadline to make those payments or complete a takeover, and as a result are currently not allowed to play in any league.

But a group led by Irish businessman Jordan, the founder and former owner of the Jordan Grand Prix F1 team, said they were targeting a “swift return” to competing professionally with a club whose roots go back to the 19th Century.

“The primary goal of the new ownership is to return London Irish Rugby Club to the pinnacle of international professional club rugby, aiming for a swift return to top-flight competition,” it said.

“The Jordan Associates team will now turn its attention to negotiating a full and sustainable return for London Irish to competitive rugby, hand-in-hand with London Irish’s supporter base.”

The Jordan team competed in Formula One between 1991 and 2005, punching above its weight in winning four races between 1998 and 2003.

In December, Jordan, 76, said he had been diagnosed with a “quite aggressive” form of cancer.

London Irish’s historic home and training base is in Sunbury, southwest London and they played at Reading football club’s ground for two decades before moving to Brentford’s Gtech Stadium in west London in 2020.

The new owners have not specified a new ground for the Exiles, but did say the club’s playing base would remain in west London.

London Irish were not the only Premiership club to go out of business during the 2022/23 season, with Wasps and Worcester also falling by the wayside due to financial problems in a series of collapses that led to the division being reduced to a 10-team league.