An Update from Sir Bill Beaumont
An update from our roadshow of English Clubs from RFU Board Interim Chair, Sir Bill Beaumont
Like me, I know you will have all enjoyed England’s thrilling win over France in the Guinness Men’s Six Nations last weekend and will be looking forward to the Red Roses participating in the Guinness Six Nations and a home Rugby World Cup.
I also recognise that while our national teams always attract the most attention and are used as a barometer for the state of English rugby, the present and future of English rugby is as much in the hands of you – our club administrators and volunteers, our players, match officials, coaches and parents – as it is in the hands of the 23 players in white at Allianz Stadium.
It’s been just over a month since I first wrote to you when I was appointed to the role of Interim Chair of the Rugby Football Union Board and addressed the call for a Special General Meeting (SGM).
In response to the calling of the SGM, I promised to hit the road on a nationwide tour to listen to the concerns, challenges and thoughts of the community game.
We are now around halfway through this nationwide tour. So far, we – myself, RFU President Rob Udwin; Bill Sweeney, our CEO; Steve Grainger, Executive Director Rugby Development; David Roberts, Chair of the Community Game Board; Malcolm Wharton, Chair of the Governance Review Group: Deborah Griffin, Senior Vice President and luminaries of our game such as Jason Leonard and John Inverdale – have held 11 roadshows, eight in person, three virtual and have attended five club visits between roadshows. Representatives of around 250 clubs have attended, and a further seven roadshows are due to take place between now and 20 February.
I thought it would be useful to share some insights we have heard so far. There have been three types of challenges raised – ones that have re-enforced things we were aware of and are addressing; ones we can address easily; and some we did not previously fully understand.
We have heard we need to improve our governance structures, to improve representation from the community game and ensure voices of the community game are heard and involved in decision making. This is something we want too and why we have a Governance and Representation Review underway, however, the feedback we have heard underlines the need for this work to be an absolute priority and for the work to be accelerated.
We hear loud and clear that the communications from the RFU to the community game have not been as clear or consistent as they could be. This letter aims to start to improve that, and I will be providing further updates once the nationwide tour is complete to reflect our desire to engage with you on the big issues facing the community game.
Many of you have mentioned competition structures. We recognise that clubs’ money and volunteers’ time are precious resources and that means there is a need for more decision making around leagues and fixtures at a local level. We will consider appropriate changes which do not compromise the competitiveness of the league system whilst giving greater flexibility around structures and regulations at local level.
Challenges to adult male participation were also raised. This is not a problem unique to rugby as a sport, nor to England as a Union. However, you look to us to lead and it is only right that this is a priority and we want to work with you to address this ensuring our sport stays strong.
You told us the Game Management System (GMS) is challenging and confusing for volunteers administering the game. We already have a significant improvement plan in train for this as part of our wider Digital Transformation strategy. However, we take on board this feedback and will accelerate this, re-enforce the importance of user groups and look to remove some of the lower priority functions within it.
You told us we need to do more to promote rugby in schools and help clubs engage with them and to support more universities to keep players playing. In response to the first of these we have already embarked on a major programme to take T1 Rugby into schools, giving teachers the confidence and support to introduce more young people to the oval ball and ultimately to help them into our clubs, whilst also committing to an investment into School Rugby Managers, locally based people helping to manage this. We have also heard some great stories of clubs doing this for themselves and we commit to engaging more with them to support their work. On Universities we are expanding the network of activators on university sites and will look to promote this more widely.
In respect of the pathways, we must allow young players to follow their dreams as far as they can through the player development groups and academy systems while also working with the Premiership to actively retain good players in the community game.
Finally, we have heard questions about the governance of the Union itself. Some related to financial performance or executive pay. I promised we would publish the findings of the independent Freshfields review on the bonus award, and we commit to doing so in full.
More often, however, we were asked: whether the RFU governance is fit for purpose, does the current system represent the views and concerns of Clubs. We have also heard the need to devolve more decisions – on competition structures, priorities, and resource allocation to a more local level, where the needs and solutions are best known.
Bill Sweeney and his team have a strategy in place – signed off by the Board and Council- to address these challenges, long before the SGM was called. In my letter of January 10, I mentioned those who had pushed for the SGM had done so without setting out an alternative vision.
As I wrote last month, “we all want winning men’s and women’s England teams, and this can’t happen without a thriving community game…If we work together, we will succeed.”
The listening exercise which we are in the midst of will, I believe, lay the foundations for future success for both the elite and community game.
Achieving a common understanding of a shared purpose and vision for the RFU we can all get behind – just as we would get behind the national teams – is as important for me as continuing the men’s first XV’s form into the Calcutta Cup.
