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RFU name the chair for its newly-created professional rugby board
By PA
Mike McTighe has been appointed chair of the newly-created professional rugby board (PRB), the RFU have announced. Joining McTighe on the board are independent non-executive directors Rachel Baillache and Ged Roddy.
The PRB has been created to oversee the professional game partnership (PGP), the recently announced eight-year agreement that is designed to deliver “world-leading English teams and thriving professional leagues”.
As part of the arrangement, England head coach Steve Borthwick has the scope to place up to 25 players on enhanced elite player squad contracts, giving him final say on their medical and sports science matters. Borthwick has so far issued 17 contracts.
Where there is a disagreement between Borthwick and a club over a player’s management, the independent PRB has the capacity to recommend that a decision is changed. The PRB is central to the operation of the PGP, which has been agreed by the RFU, Premiership Rugby and Rugby Players’ Association (RPA).
McTighe takes up his role as chair with immediate effect, bringing with him a “wealth of leadership, board and regulatory experience from both public and private companies”. He is chairman of Openreach Limited, Together Financial Services Limited and IG Group plc.
“It’s my privilege to be taking on this role at such an important time for English rugby,” McTighe said. “The enthusiasm from all quarters to reshape the men’s game is palpable. I look forward to getting to know better all the stakeholders in the coming days and weeks.”
Baillache is a senior independent director at the Lawn Tennis Association, a member of the committee of management for Wimbledon and is on the board at UK Sport and Somerset County Cricket Club.
Roddy was a member of the executive board of the FA Premier League and on the UK Sport Board and has also held senior leadership positions and non-executive board roles with the Lawn Tennis Association, Sport England, UK Sport, the English Institute of Sport, Sports Coach UK and FIFA.
The PRB will also comprise of eight voting members split across the RFU, Premiership Rugby and the RPA.
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Latest Comments
Yeah me too. I think the Welsh have it in them to make it a contest in the first half. Give the boks' second stringers a headache. Disrupting lineouts is one area the welsh could cause problems. Bok lineouts have been subpar.
And then fronting up in the collisions and at the rucks. If the boks get the ascendancy there too early, it could be a hiding. Jaden hendrikse had a tough game against the Scots - who were very good at disrupting the boks flow. The welsh would have taken note of this i'm sure.
But the bok bench will finish the welsh off i'm afraid.
Go to commentsYes, certainly. As an AB fan happy to be included in that top 3 of "matches that are routinely decided by one score" now, we were well outside that for a few years.
They have not had enough games yet. You can't undo so many poor years just like that. Asking for miracles like SA losing is not the way to get back to number 1.
They might get there as those bad years filter out of the rankings but it's guarenteed to be great fun going back and forth with SA once that happens.
Admittedly Foster only really had one bad year (21/22 season), but that's more likely because COVID stopped a lot of tough games from being played, and effected the other countries they did play far more than themselves.
A real shame we both don't get to see it unfold first with our regions teams in SR!
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