THE BIG GARETH DAVIES INTERVIEW:

PART 2

IN the second part of our interview with WRU chairman Gareth Davies, we turn to matters off the field. There are big changes on the way in Welsh rugby, both at regional level and in the governance of the sport.

Rugby correspondent SIMON THOMAS finds out more as he talks to former Wales and Lions fly-half Davies.

There has been duplication in the past in terms of supplies to both the region and to Wales.

The five can work together to generate money as well, commercially and through sponsorship.

And what the exercise has proved is that all of us do want to work together. we do work to a cabinet system.

Our legal guys are now putting things together in terms of the fine details and the clubs will vote on the proposals at the AGM on Sunday, October 14.

Before that, my plan is to go out to all the districts again in late August and early September.

They have been told in letter form what the board have agreed to. There will be far more detail now and no doubt other questions.

They will have a chance to quiz us at an open meeting. Rather than just go to the AGM with ten pages of text, we can talk it through with them and have a debate before the AGM.

At the meetings, I want to get the district reps to contribute because it’s not Gareth Davies’ plan, it’s our plan, the board have approved it.

We would look for that to be more diverse, with more women, people representing disability, all the uncatered areas.

We will get new people on to the council, which means over time they feed into the board and make that more diverse too. I talk to people out there in Wales and they would like to get involved. They just feel at the moment it’s a bit of a closed shop so we are trying to open it up a little bit.

That’s not criticising anybody, it’s just making it more accessible to what should be representative of Wales in terms of rugby. At the moment, I don’t really think it is.

I hope not, but it’s their call at the end of the day if they don’t want to change.

It is important the clubs realise how crucial it is to have an effective governance in terms of the decisionmaking process.

We are on a good run at the moment and things are going well financially, but we can see some pinch points over the next couple of years. Those could work against the community game. They would be the ones exposed if something bad happens.

If anything catastrophic did happen to the top end of the game – whether it’s sponsorship or the Six Nations not delivering or losing TV income – it would be the community game that would feel the pain as things stand, by the nature of contracts being in place for the pro game. So we are proposing that we will ring-fence the community funding.

We will guarantee them a figure which can only go up. That’s quite important for the community game and I would have thought that’s something they would welcome.

With guaranteed funding, they