Secretaries

Past Secretaries of the Welsh Rugby Union

The first Secretary of the WFRU was Richard Mullock, a man who had his fingers in many sporting pies; Welsh rugby’s ‘Mr Fixit’. As well as being a founder member of the Newport Athletic Club in 1874, he was also present at the formation of the Amateur Athletics Association (AAA) at the Randolph Hotel, Oxford in 1880.

In 1881, he took it upon himself to select a Welsh rugby team to play against England. His side was hammered and a month later the Welsh Rugby Football Union was formed in Neath. Mullock was elected Honorary Secretary and Treasurer and served as Secretary until 1892. He became Wales’s fourth international referee when he ‘umpired’ the 1885 Championship clash between Ireland and England at Lansdowne Road. He was frequently found in the summer umpiring cricket matches at Newport and was elected to the AAA General Committee in 1881 as a representative of the ‘West of England’ clubs.

He was the first of a series of Secretaries of the Union who held the post for 121 years until a change in constitution created an Executive Board with a new figurehead, a Group Chief Executive. Three of Mullock’s successors, Billy Gwynn, Bill Clement and Denis Evans were ex-Welsh internationals, although Evans was actually born in England.

English-born New Zealander David Moffett became the first WRU Group Chief Executive in 2002 and left in 2006. He made Steve Lewis WRU Chief Executive in 2005, although he also left the Union in 2006. Roger Lewis, took over as WRU Group Chief Executive in October, 2006.