‘Long way to go’ for crisis-hit WRU

Chris Haines ICNN Senedd reporter

Welsh Rugby Union chiefs admitted the governing body still has a long way to go after an independent review unveiled a “toxic” culture of bullying and misogyny.

The Senedd’s culture committee scrutinised representatives of the WRU, which has been rocked by allegations of sexism, racism and homophobia over the past year.

Labour’s Hannah Blythyn pressed the witnesses about the women’s team being given a three-hour ultimatum in contract talks, asking if this is how the WRU treats employees.

Richard Collier-Keywood, chair of the WRU since July 2023, told the committee he and Abi Tierney, the chief executive, have since apologised to the players for serious failings.

He said: “That was not something that should have happened … we absolutely should not have given the players a three-hour ultimatum to sign the contracts … it’s certainly not the practice which I want to see in the WRU.”

‘Misreporting’

Plaid Cymru leader Rhun ap Iorwerth said: “You’ve made it clear that you believe you have taken significant steps in terms of changing attitudes towards cultural issues.

“Given that everybody’s eyes were on you … and in particular your attitude towards women within the organisation, do you feel you need to reassess how far forward you believe you have come as a union in light of the failings?”

Mr Collier-Keywood replied: “Yeah, I think we’ve definitely reflected on that and I don’t think we were fooling ourselves up to that point either … we recognise we have a long way to go.”

He explained that two board members led an in-depth review of the contract negotiation process, with their report expected to be published in full in the coming weeks.

Criticising “misreporting” of the review’s conclusions by the Daily Telegraph, he said: “There were many failures … but they were not to do with sex discrimination.”

‘Frustrations’

Ms Tierney told the committee: “Everybody went in with the best intentions but … tensions and frustrations arose during the process.”

Mr Collier-Keywood explained the findings emerging from the review: “I don’t think that we as the WRU set out a clear process such that everybody brought in ….

“We were not clear of the roles of individuals in that process, both from a WRU perspective nor, in particular, the people who the players thought would be representing them.”

He added: “We had not fully appreciated the fact that we were dealing with a situation where we had players who were in a high-performance environment but they were also contracted to the WRU as employees.”

Mr Collier-Keywood pointed out that men are contracted to the regions, saying: “We weren’t treating the women as employees to the full extent of that term. That was confusing and difficult and we were not fulfilling our obligations towards the women.”

‘False dawns’

Delyth Jewel, who chairs the Senedd’s culture committee, questioned progress against recommendations made by Anne Rafferty’s 2023 independent review.

Ms Tierney accepted the WRU had not lived up to the standards expected as she stressed: “Transformational change is hard. I would say colleagues are really feeling that at the moment and it will take time for things to feel better, I think.”

Mr Collier-Keywood added: “Years of previous culture does take time to change and yes we’re impatient to do that but we’re also realistic in terms of not claiming false dawns.”

Asked about a £7.5m loss in latest accounts, Mr Collier-Keywood told Senedd members the WRU is on track to take £5m out of its cost base in the current year.

“We both now believe our finances are more sustainable,” he said, explaining that the WRU made a £24m profit but drew on reserves to allocate £31m to rugby.

‘Glass cliff’

Pressed about the impact on participation, Ms Tierney told the committee meeting on November 27 she is saddened that concerns around culture may deter women and girls

But she stressed: “I think it would be unfair for me to sit here and say we won’t ever have any more headlines again because I think culture is a journey.

“It’s how we respond to those headlines that is so important.”

Ms Blythyn, a former minister who was previously responsible for fair work in Wales, did not envy the chief executive’s task of having to turn the WRU around.

She said: “We’ve heard of the glass ceiling but there’s a glass cliff – a tendency for women to come in at a point where an organisation or institution is at the precipice.”