AS Worcester travel to Birmingham University for their clash with Moseley on Saturday, the rugby world awaits another memorial service for the game's heritage as a Premiership club bids for a new home.

The aptly named Sale Sharks are eyeing up Manchester City's Maine Road ground for their new base as the Blues look forward to their planned 48,000 seater stadium in Eastlands.

Presently based at their spiritual home at Heywood Road, Sale are averaging crowds of 3,000 but have been in touch with Manchester City Council to obtain a lease.

They are the latest club after Saracens, Wasps, London Irish and West Hartlepool to look at moving to greener pastures for brighter futures. In Moseley's case they had little choice but to move to Bournbrook but ask any Sale supporter whether they would fancy moving to Moss Side rather than staying in cosy Cheshire and there will be little support.

There is always the argument that there is need for progression in the game but the move just doesn't make sense. For starters, they are moving closer into a football city and further away from their fan base. They will lose supporters because of the move and, although the 34,000 capacity Maine Road is a fine stadium, what will the atmosphere be like with just 3,000 fans inside it? Like a graveyard one suspects. Quite what new signing Jason Robinson will make of it all remains to be seen. He is used to playing in front of big crowds and an atmosphere to go with it.

It's very tempting to point to Worcester and Sixways as the model for all clubs to follow but realistically it's not viable without the investment. While England's elite are paying the big bucks for the top foreign players, there will be little chance to develop stadia or build new ones. That was the justification behind the Andrew plan. To give stability to these chosen clubs there would have to some limit on promotion and relegation. However, history tells us that the money would go in one direction and the clubs would look to ground share rather than bite the bullet and make a clean break.

Worcester knew the crowd level they could attract in National One and the stadium was built to cater for such numbers. The ground capacity can also be increased easily as we saw when the South Africans came to visit.

When the elite talk of the chosen clubs that should be protected from relegation, they should take a good hard look at the decisions which have been made at those centres of excellence.

They ripped the hearts out of the clubs long ago when they decided to share with the football world. When they moved away from their base, their history and heritage they gave up everything that was central to them and their supporters. The community aspect is something which should be encouraged especially in rugby because it not only gives the club identity, it allows supporters to get a feel for the place when they pay their hard-earned cash at the turnstiles.

After the desecration of their heritage, clubs have shown that everything supporters hold dear to their hearts means absolutely nothing to them in the race for the media spotlight and the lure of the pound. That, in essence, is where Worcester are already light years ahead of the rest.