They were due to fly to Penzance the following Thursday for Friday's PRC game versus the Cornish Pirates, but the journey never happened. Instead, they were told at dawn that the club was being liquidated and would not take its place in the 2023/24 Championship.
The exits of players such as Springboks No8 Jasper Wiese and Scotland midfielder Matt Scott were already known, while former Wallabies scrum-half Joe Powell left the club at the start of the calendar year.