Steele Reveals RFU Structure Overhaul

John Steele, chief executive of the Rugby Football Union, has announced a major overhaul of the organisation’s structure.

The RFU Board of Directors has unanimously approved the changes proposed by Steele as he looks to create a streamlined executive leadership with more emphasis on delivering rugby at all levels ahead of the 2015 World Cup on home soil.

A new, single rugby department will be created which will be divided into three areas – performance, operations and development – with new director roles created in each area.

All three director positions of the new departments will be advertised from next week but the new structure will take six to nine months to put in place.

The changes mean that Rob Andrew’s role as director of elite rugby at the RFU has been scrapped – but according to media reports Andrew has been invited to apply for the new operations director role.

England team manager Martin Johnson will report to the new performance director – with a number of names being linked to the post including Sir Clive Woodward, Eddie Jones and Jake White.

Steele said of his changes to the organisation: ‘I have toured England talking to staff, clubs, players, sponsors and any other rugby stakeholders I could spend time with to find out what we were good at and where we could improve.’

‘What became clear is that while we had a sound commercial platform, we did not have enough focus on the quality of the rugby experience across the game.’

‘So the new structure puts rugby right at the centre of the business and seeks to create more rugby expertise to benefit all levels of the game.’

In addition, two other new roles will be created within the RFU –  a chief commercial officer, responsible for all of the revenue generating elements of the business and an enhanced chief financial officer role, encompassing all the corporate support services.

Also as part of the reorganisation a number of RFU executives have left the business with immediate effect as their roles no longer exist within the new structure.

Andrew Scoular, Nick Bunting, Terry Burwell, Richard Prescott and Ian King depart from their roles as community rugby director, head of planning, funding and resources, tournaments and competitions director, elite team media director and head of HR.