Butcher keeps Welsh chair for next year

WRU chair Rob Butcher has been re-elected for a further year. The former schoolteacher and longserving Bargoed official took over from Gareth Davies in November 2020.

He has now been reinstalled unopposed at the first WRU board meeting following the Annual General Meeting.

“It is a great honour and a privilege to serve Welsh rugby as WRU chairman and I’m hugely encouraged and invigorated by my fellow directors who have asked me to serve for a further one-year term,” said Butcher, 71.

“The past year has been incredibly tough for our member clubs, our professional players and for everyone involved in the game at all levels, from WRU staff to the volunteers who make it their mission to ensure our game continues to thrive.

“One of my first actions was to appoint Steve Phillips as permanent CEO and it is the strength of this relationship which I believe has been a stabilising influence on the Union over the last 12 months.

“I am particularly grateful to Steve, who now has his full executive team in place and look forward to continuing to work in unison with him and his team to positive effect in the year ahead.

“Our club game has had to survive incredible adversity, but capacity crowds at Principality Stadium and the return of our WRU National Leagues, with the Premiership to follow next month, all add up to the feeling that we are hopefully approaching the end of this crisis.

“I am most proud of the achievements of the community game in the past year, where we have been able to count the same number of clubs out of the crisis as we were able to boast at its onset.”

He added: “We have seen recent progress off the field with the announcement that professional contracts will be made available to our Wales Women squad players.

“My mantra in the year ahead will be to continue to drive change for the better and make progress that is in the best interests of our member clubs and the elite game in Wales.”