The Purpose of the WRU

The Purpose of the WRU is:

To promote, foster, encourage, control and improve rugby football in Wales.

It's actually quite difficult to find the above. It's not prominant on the WRU site (which incidently is one of the worst web sites you'll find anywhere). There is a lot of debate about the awful relationships between the WRU and Regions and much discussion of the cause. Money makes the game go around, but control is at the core.

We can all look back at the start of "regional" rugby and see huge flaws in the structure. Allowing super clubs to emerge under a thin veneer of regional status together with the entrenched parochial nature of welsh fans was always going to limit the regional appeal. Ten years on and we still don't have a long term vision or structure to ensure the game thrives well into this century. So who is to blame? Well, it's easy to point to the regions and look at them as failed businesses. A few benefactors have sunk significant fortunes into the ownership structure and whereas you can't deny the sizable ego's of some involved this is still their hard earned cash and it has kept the professional game alive for ten years - even with a distinct lack of professional managment.

The WRU, in trying to get a professional structure up and running ceeded way too much control to the regions and then compounded mistake after mistake. They have succeeded in driving a huge wedge between themselves and the regions. The professional board set up last year was a great example of something that should never have been signed. Why did anyone think that a governing body with a charter that includs the "control" of the game would ever accept an independent chair to have a casting vote - absurd.

So. the regions have acted with self interest, surprise surprise. What did anyone expect. However, the WRU has acted with neglect. Ultimately it is the WRU's respponsibility to govern the game. The leadership looks weak and petulant - silly inlammatory press releases and a preference to conduct itself in public. Take a look at the Board of the WRU and you see straight away why they make so many mistakes. It's hardly an inspiring read of business leadership. No - old school blazers trying to conduct a modern enterprise.

Regardless of past mistakes and the really poor state of affairs it is only the WRU that can get us out of it. If the situation is so bad that a change is needed, Lewis should step aside and let someone else shake up the WRU and build a new future. Watching the current farce it is difficult to conclude that the WRU is capable of taking the necessary acountability. Let's face it, anyone can build a fantastic stadium and make money from it but can this lot secure the future of the game at all levels in Wales for the next 50 years? It doesn't look like it.