The WRU has responded to growing calls to hold an EGM
Clubs have been urged to force the Welsh Rugby Union to hold a vote of no confidence in chair Richard Collier-Keywood.
The Central Glamorgan Rugby Union, which represents clubs in Neath, Port Talbot, Maesteg and Bridgend areas and is one of nine districts that help make up the WRU, has written a letter to be sent out to clubs calling on them to support the proposals.
Around 30 of the near 300 clubs across the country would be needed to support the plans.
Clubs overwhelmingly showed support for a change in governance at the last EGM meeting in 2023, which included alterations to the board and the appointment of the first independent chair.
Collier-Keywood was appointed in July 2023 along with a new-look board.
But the Central Glamorgan Rugby Union believes change hasn’t been sufficient and is consequently calling for a vote of no confidence in Collier-Keywood and Professional Rugby Board (PRB) chair Malcolm Wall, who is also a board member.
According to the BBC, their letter to clubs reads: “This new structure of leadership within the WRU has been in place for more than two years.
“While we acknowledge that the situation on the back of Covid has been challenging, we’re deeply concerned the current leadership have not been able to formulate and commence the delivery of a plan that sets our game in Wales on the right track to support the professional, SRC [Super Rygbi Cymru], female and community game.
“Instead, we see the meandering between different versions of a plan, causing chaos, confusion and uncertainty, spending extortionate amounts of money on external consultants, combined with the current board’s inability to define and deliver a clear strategy for rugby in Wales.
“This is causing reputational damage to Welsh rugby across the world when we were once held in such high esteem.
“We feel strongly we as clubs and shareholders need to hold the WRU to account and the only mechanism that we have to do that at this moment in time is via an extraordinary general meeting.
“To call an EGM, we require a minimum of 10% of voting members to support the call for such a meeting.
“However, we would like to send a stronger message and would therefore encourage clubs to canvas the opinions of their members to get as many member clubs as possible to agree change is needed in accordance with the motions we are putting forward.”
The WRU says they are “aware of the correspondence from the Central Glamorgan Rugby Union to member clubs”.
“The Welsh Rugby Union has a clear governance process in place for these sorts of matters, as set out in our constitution, and we will continue to engage fully with our member clubs to follow that process,” said WRU chief executive Abi Tierney, in response to the BBC article.
“At this point, we have not received any formal trigger required to call an extraordinary general meeting under our articles of association.
“We published our plans for the future of the elite game in Wales at the end of October 2025, following an extensive consultation process.
“We are now focused on rolling out that plan and are working with key stakeholders to agree a consensus on the implementation.
“Detailed work is underway with the professional clubs, the United Rugby Championship and player representatives, and we remain committed to reaching consensus on the next steps in the coming weeks.
“We ask all stakeholders to work with us. We recognise that change is challenging, but it is essential for the long-term health of the game in Wales.”
Last month Super Rygbi Cymru clubs joined forces to hit back at the WRU’s plans to centrally appoint the coaching and medical teams of each club. You can read more about that here.
It comes amid the backdrop of the union wanting to cut the number of professional clubs in Wales from four to three.
More talks are expected in the coming weeks as the union look to find consensus going forward.
