By Rob Carbon
Newly appointed WRU chairman Ieuan Evans has set out his priorities for his first year in office in a New Year’s message to all Welsh rugby clubs.
Top of the agenda is to turn a verbal agreement between the governing body and the regions into a workable and fully functioning six-year agreement that can calm the stormy financial waters in the professional game.
Then he intends to pursue the work started by his predecessor, Rob Butcher, in convincing the 320 Welsh clubs to back the WRU’s wish to be able to appoint an independent chairman as and when they see fit.
That will require a 75% vote from the membership to pass. When it was proposed at the annual general meeting in Cardiff in October, it reached 66%.
But while many people felt Wales’ previously most capped Welsh player, who also captained his country more times than anyone else in his 72-cap career and scored a then record 33 tries, had inherited a poisoned chalice when he took over from Butcher after the AGM, he doesn’t see it that way.
“We have Warren Gatland back at the helm of our senior men’s side and he is targeting immediate success in the 2023 Six Nations and the Rugby World Cup in France later in the year,” he said.
“If anyone can make an immediate and positive impact, it’s him and he has put maximum pressure on himself by willingly raising expectations. We are not setting minimum standards or low benchmarks, we are setting high expectations and Warren is right there with us – these are exciting times!
“We also have a new six-year verbal agreement in place to deliver sustainability and success for the professional game in Wales. We now urgently need to convert this into an agreement which is in executable form.
“Particularly in order to give the players in Wales the required confidence and also to enable our professional game generally to plan and flourish.”
With more than 100 players and coaches out of contract in the summer, and squads likely to be reduced and wages trimmed, many players are considering their financial rather than international futures.
Dragons lock Will Rowlands, last season’s Welsh Player of the Year, has already rejected a WRU contract in favour of a deal that will take him to Racing 92, post World Cup.
Now the leading English and French clubs are on the trail of Scarlets hooker Ryan Elias.
Younger players such as Cardiff centre Max Llewelyn have already signed deals to switch to the Premiership, in his case with Gloucester, and dozens of young Welsh players are heading to schools and colleges on scholarships, rather than remain in Wales to develop through the existing academy systems.
The 60-cap rule, which was brought in during Gatland’s first tenure to keep the best players in Wales, should mean a return to a Welsh region for the likes of Callum Sheedy, Tommy Reffell, Christ Tshiunza and Dafydd Jenkins from English clubs when their contracts expire, but is likely to be severely challenged.
Evans and his board of directors face a plethora of challenges and that is why the man who led Wales to the 1994 Five Nations title is ready to go out to the membership this year and convince them to join him in pushing through plans to modernise the union’s governance – even if it leads to him losing his chain of office.
He has also added an extra request to the one at last year’s AGM in that he wants the number of independent non-executive directors on the board to rise from three to four.
“We will call an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) next year. We know we need a 75% vote to pass any changes to our constitution, but we are buoyed by the fact that 66% of clubs at our recent AGM voted with the motion proposed in respect of our appointment processes for chair,” explained Evans.
“We were also pleased that a number of other governance proposals were approved. The feedback we have received tells us more clubs will join us if we can explain our thinking more clearly and this is now my task.
“We will revisit the idea that our Board should be allowed – should it choose to do so having first considered whether one of the Directors can fulfil the role – to appoint a chair with the right skillset, acumen and experience to oversee this £100m business which sustains our game – if and when it decides this move is necessary.
“Such a move could see the number of Directors increase from 12 to 13. We will also encourage our members to take further steps towards improving diversity throughout our governance structure, which will include asking them to pass proposals to improve the gender diversity of our Board and Council.
“Welsh rugby will be better for having as broad a pool of talent as possible, improving diversity, skill set and experience within our governance structures.”