Former British & Irish Lion, Osprey, Wales captain and triple Grand Slam winner Ryan Jones, who joined the WRU in 2016 as head of rugby participation, will now take up a new position of WRU Performance Director and joins the newly formed Professional Rugby Board (PRB).
The WRU’s longest serving executive board member Julie Paterson, who is also on the World Rugby Council, becomes WRU Operations Director, formerly head of rugby operations, and also sits on the PRB and Community Rugby Board (CRB).
Geraint John, who was appointed as head of rugby performance, alongside Jones three years ago – when the previous head of rugby role was divided into two areas – has been appointed as WRU Community Director and will serve the new CRB.
The re-shuffle follows confirmation of 12 members (reduced from 20) of the new WRU Board announced by chairman Gareth Davies last week, a major part of proposed governance changes voted in by the Union’s Annual General Meeting in October.
The new structure creates a WRU Council, elected by member clubs to work alongside a streamlined WRU Board with two Sub-Boards charged with managing the professional (PRB) and community game (CRB) in turn.
The re-allocation of roles for executive staff reflects changing responsibilities, empowerment and emphasis at Board and Sub-Board level and is also a tactical move by Phillips to align the contributions of his executive team.
“When we appointed Ryan and Geraint in 2016, we split the existing head of rugby role into two, giving direct and exclusive responsibility to the community game to an individual executive Board member for the first time,” said Phillips.
“We recognised quickly that the head of rugby job was too big for one person and the move to divide it up between both individuals has paid dividends.
“Ryan, Julie and Geraint have worked closely together for the last three years and this move will only lead to further integration and a continuation to our joined-up approach to the whole of Welsh rugby.
“The changes mean that Ryan will now sit on the PRB and bring direct, extensive and recent experience of the elite game in Wales to its important decision making processes.
“Geraint will become the new highly visible champion of the community game and Julie will continue her vitally important work to ensure that the execution of our plan is joined up and is delivering our long term strategic ambitions across the community and professional game.”
