WRU denies sexism is at the heart of women's squad contract disputes

The Welsh Rugby Union has denied allegations that sexism was at the heart of the recent contract dispute with its women’s squad.

Over the summer, negotiations between the players and the Union became fractious and descended into chaos.

Players were set a three-hour deadline to sign contracts as frustrations on all sides grew.

They then wrote to WRU Chair Richard Collier-Keywood to voice their concerns. He set up an internal review of the process and CEO Abi Tierney took over the negotiations, which had previously been headed by Executive Director of Rugby Nigel Walker.

Eventually, 37 female players signed professional contracts, which the WRU claim are some of the most lucrative in the game.

But the Union has since apologised to its players for the way the process was handled, however they deny that sexism was at the heart of the matter.

“Unfortunately, there was some misreporting of the conclusions of the review by the Telegraph in particular,” Collier-Keywood told a Senedd Committee this morning.

“They led with a heading of sexism and the one thing that was not mentioned by any of the participants (in the review) was sexism.

“There were many failures but they were not to do with sex discrimination, as has been reported to the Board.”

Collier-Keywood went on to explain that the Union had not grasped the reality that the women’s players were also employees of the WRU, whereas in the men’s game players are contracted to their club sides.

It has emerged that players did not have access to things like company email addresses, intranet services or HR documents. This led to some players feeling alienated.

The Union has also previously admitted that both the players and Union had very different ideas of what was possible in the negotiating process.

Collier-Keywood admitted that it was a ‘failure of process and leadership’. He also insisted that the WRU had planned to create a sub-committee to manage the running of the women’s game and was adamant that had that been in place at the start of the summer, then these issues would not have developed.

“It is my responsibility as Chair of the Board for not getting that in place fast enough,” he added.

When asked if cultural change at the Union was about individuals or institutional, Collier-Keywood concluded: “It's both. Some individuals were under a lot of pressure and they did things I wouldn't normally expect them to do."

The main focus of the WRU’s appearance in the Senedd was to update the Committee on the implementation of recommendations from the external review that was conducted last year.

That review came off the back of allegations of a toxic culture of sexism at the Union in early 2023.

The Union is in the process of implementing all recommendations and are reporting to an external oversight committee.

But CEO Abi Tierney warned: "Transformational change is hard. Colleagues are really feeling that at the moment and it will take time for things to feel better... until we're in a stable place as an organisation."

When asked to give assurances that more ‘bad headlines’ would not emerge in the future, Tierney said: "It would be unfair for me to say that we won't ever have anymore (bad) headlines again. I wish I could promise you. But I will absolutely work my hardest with my team for it not to happen."

A draft of the review of the recent contract negotiations is currently with the players for ratifying. When the players and other participants are happy that their words have been accurately represented, then it will be released to the public.

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