The Welsh Rugby Union has begun the hunt for a new independent chair — but the search means the decision on which professional region faces the axe has been pushed back once more.
The governing body has hired executive search firm Gatenby Sanderson to lead the recruitment, with the role due to be advertised early next week and filled before the WRU’s annual general meeting in November.
For rugby fans in Swansea and Llanelli, it is the delay that matters most.
The WRU had promised to set out by the end of June how it would cut Welsh rugby from four professional teams to three — a decision widely seen as a straight fight between the Ospreys and the Scarlets for survival in the west.
That detail will now come in the “coming weeks”, with the union saying it is focusing first on appointing its new chair.
It is the latest delay in a saga that has dragged on for months, leaving both west Wales regions waiting to learn their fate.
A chair, a vice-chair and a board in flux
The recruitment follows the departure of Richard Collier-Keywood, the WRU’s first independently appointed chair, who announced in March that he would step down and ran his final board meeting in June.
In the interim, board member John Manders takes on a new temporary role as vice-chair and will chair board meetings.
Manders is the WRU’s nationally elected member and has chaired its Community Game Board since 2022.
“We will run an independent, thorough and detailed recruitment process and will have a new chair in place as soon as possible and in advance of our AGM in the autumn,” he said.
He paid tribute to Collier-Keywood, saying he had brought “financial security to the business” and led “a welcome cultural and structural evolution across the game”.
But the chair is not the only senior governance role being filled. The same search firm will also recruit two independent members of the Professional Rugby Board, which oversees the professional game on behalf of the WRU and the four clubs.
One of the pair will be elected chair of that board — a role that in turn commands a seat on the WRU board.
That board has itself been unsettled. Former chair Malcolm Wall stepped down in March, with Norwegian financier Marianne Økland drafted in on an interim basis. In effect, the WRU is rebuilding the top of its governance — chair, vice-chair and professional board — all at once.
Why the delay matters in the west
The hold-up lands hardest in Swansea and Llanelli, because it is the Ospreys and Scarlets who are widely seen as fighting for the single professional licence the WRU intends to award in the west.
The union confirmed its three-club model in October 2025, proposing to cut one of the four men’s sides and instead award three new licences — one in Cardiff, one in the east and one in the west.
That structure is what pits the two west Wales regions against each other, even as the WRU has insisted it is not setting one team against the other.
The plan has met fierce resistance. Swansea’s political leaders branded it “not fit for purpose”, dozens of clubs moved to a no-confidence vote against the leadership, and the WRU doubled down on the plan after a stormy extraordinary general meeting in April.
A central plank of the original timetable — the sale of WRU-owned Cardiff to Ospreys owners Y11 Sport & Media — then collapsed, pushing the cut back to 2028.
The tender threat — and the Cardiff question
The WRU has warned that if no agreement can be reached with the four professional sides, it could move to a tender process to decide who is awarded the licences — raising the stakes for clubs that cannot strike a deal.
For west Wales supporters, the identity of the next chair is not a side issue. Whoever takes the role will preside over the final decision on cutting a region.
Earlier this year, Cardiff Rugby financier Martyn Ryan’s declaration of interest in the chair role prompted some west Wales fans to ask whether the game’s governance was tilting towards the capital.
Both regions have spent the saga shoring up their positions. The Scarlets have confirmed significant new investment, while the Ospreys have signed the new Professional Rugby Agreement and pressed ahead with a move to a redeveloped St Helen’s, backed by a £5.1m Swansea Council commitment.
Manders said the board and executive were continuing to work “in earnest” on finalising plans for the men’s professional game, with more detail on changes ahead of the 2028 season to follow in the coming weeks.
For now, the Ospreys and Scarlets — and their supporters — face a further wait, as a decision that will shape the future of professional rugby in Swansea and Llanelli is pushed back once again.
