English Rugby Union: Governance

Andrew George Excerpts

Tuesday 11th March 2025 Westminster Hall

[Perran Moon]

Yes, I do, and I thank the hon. Member for that point. It is absolutely the case that the rules and laws of rugby are constantly being reviewed. I can understand to a certain extent that the game is trying to find a formula that is as attractive as possible to ensure that more and more people come to watch, but it makes it very hard for players, administrators and coaches to manage when there is a constant change in the rules. He makes a very good point—I should say the laws, not the rules.

Anecdotally, some clubs are experiencing an increase in concussions. Worse still, the concussions are more severe than previously, because players are now required to put their heads against knees and hip bones, and the tackle area has been much reduced. Two-player tackles mean head-on-head collisions appear to be increasing. As I say, because we are not routinely collecting data, this is anecdotal, so we must start routinely collecting that data. The situation would be significantly mitigated through competent and sympathetic implementation and governance from people with experience of the grassroots game.

On funding, I was pretty shocked to learn that our grassroots rugby clubs are largely left to fend for themselves while funding is held at the very top of the game. There is a massive financial premium placed on the success of the England rugby team. This is a high risk strategy over which the grassroots game has no control. If the last 14 years taught us anything at all, it is that the theory of trickle-down economics has been debunked. Poorer organisations that are required to value every single pound are far more likely to spend wisely than bloated and complacent functions at the top of the game. The crumbs from the captain’s table approach of providing tickets to England matches as a means of raising revenue is simply not one that provides the financial security that grassroots clubs need.

The only point I will raise about championship clubs is the deeply concerning issue of the covid loans. Over the last five years, championship teams had funding unilaterally cut from £625,000 per championship club, to the current level of £103,000. In plans introduced in the weeks before the first lockdown, a reduction to £288,000 by the beginning of the 2022-23 season was imposed, but a one-year emergency cut to £150,000 was imposed later in 2020 because of the impact of covid.

Championship clubs fully expected and were promised a reinstatement of the pre-covid phased reduction, but that funding has failed to materialise, with authorities claiming a lack of available cash. Championship clubs were not consulted on those changes, despite the severe impact on the chances of survival for many. Having spoken with several championship clubs, there is now a clear and present danger that several of them will not survive.

Competent governance is essential to the safeguarding of the game that we all love. That includes proper consultation and communication; relevant experience at the top of the game; a coherent and transparent funding model; and sympathetic implementation of law changes, which consider the practicalities of the amateur game and the safeguarding of players.

[Andrew George (St Ives) (LD)]

The hon. Member makes a powerful point about the impact of the way in which the covid loans were provided to championship clubs. He will be aware that many of those clubs are calling on Ministers to intervene on Sport England to ensure that the repayment schedule for the loans is rescheduled to enable those clubs to achieve viability in the years ahead. Without that, many of them are on the precipice of bankruptcy.

[Perran Moon]

It is a delicate one, because the governance of English rugby sits largely with the RFU, outside of the Premiership. I am not sure that it is the role of national Government to intervene in areas such as this, if we have competent governance at the top of the RFU. I completely accept the hon. Member’s point—it is a delicate one, but it is a problem that was created at the top of the English game, and it is there that it should be fixed.

I ask the Minister if she agrees with me on three separate areas. First, does she agree that the RFU board should have increased representation from the grassroots game, and that changes to that should be made as soon as possible so that it more closely represents its core membership? Secondly, there is an entry on regular match cards for concussion data to be collected: it should be mandatory for three seasons for it to be completed, so that we can gather the information we need to make a reasoned judgment on whether we have a tackle-height problem. Until we do that, it is my view that we are failing in our duty of care to players, as revisions to the tackle-height law may be required.

Thirdly, an immediate review should be undertaken of the implementation and impact of the covid loan fiasco, with a view to an emergency package of support being made available to championship clubs. Additionally, a multi-year funding pot should be made available to RFU-registered clubs below the top two tiers of English rugby. That should be reviewed annually, and its objective should be to support grassroots clubs in planning and developing their clubs for the long term, rather than the current crumbs from the captain’s table approach with ad-hoc funding plans.

Those of us who love the game across the political spectrum cannot hope to protect our game for the long term, ensure that our grassroots clubs remain at the heart of our communities, and support youngsters coming into the game, without profound and urgent change. I look forward to hearing the views and experiences of other Members here today.

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[Andrew George (St Ives) (LD)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Desmond. I congratulate the hon. Member for Camborne and Redruth (Perran Moon) on raising this issue. He also represents Hayle, where I live and which used to be in the St Ives constituency, where it should be, really. Nevertheless I congratulate him on securing this debate, and on the manner in which he presented the issues. I strongly endorse everything that he said, although I want to take a couple of the points that he made a little further.

Unlike the hon. Gentleman, I make no great play of my involvement in the game itself, although I have been a very keen sportsman and have played rugby in the past. I did turn out for the Commons and Lords rugby team. I kind of gave that up because I kept playing at weekends, and if you represent a constituency as far from London as mine it becomes a logistical challenge. During my playing days, being a back, I always found it very frustrating because I never quite understood what forwards were there for, other than to grab the ball, wallow around in the mud and grunt a lot, and we had to keep demanding the ball back. That became very frustrating for me. That is about as far as my playing ever got.

As the hon. Member for Camborne and Redruth said, rugby is in Cornwall a pre-eminent sport, in which we feel enormous pride. Indeed, the heritage of the game in Cornwall is one that we can look back on—we can also look forward, we hope—with an enormous amount of pride. Despite the deprivation that our constituents experience, the game has been able to flourish. Because of the market area that it covers, at the end of a long, thin peninsula, it has not been able to generate the crowd numbers that perhaps other areas and more populous places can generate. Nevertheless, it has an enormous following in terms of the proportion of the local population who follow the sport. It is vital to the spirit of the local communities and the pride of our local communities. It provides mentors for our young people to emulate and aspire to become themselves. So, it is an enormous source of inspiration in communities that otherwise do not have a great deal available to them, hence its real importance.

The other thing about Cornish rugby is that of course in Cornwall—as the hon. Member who represents Camborne, Redruth and Hayle knows very well—we have an uneasy relationship, in terms of our identity, with English rugby. Certainly some Cornish players have preferred to play for fellow Celtic nations—examples are Andy Reed for Scotland and Colin Laity for Wales— rather than for England. The English connection has sometimes been uneasy, but that is not an issue in itself, or one that I wish to pursue today.

In my constituency, we are very proud to have excellent local clubs: St Ives, St Just and Helston. Many of our players go to play for Hayle, Redruth and Camborne as well. Perhaps pre-eminent among all the clubs in Cornwall is what used to be known as Penzance and Newlyn and is now renowned as the Cornish Pirates. For the last couple of decades, the Cornish Pirates has been a predominant club in championship rugby, competing for promotion on many occasions in recent years, and certainly in the top half of the table of championship rugby. It has set standards of which we feel enormously proud. It has also been the nursery ground for many players who have gone on to great things in English and, indeed, international rugby. The Cornish Pirates is an important case in point in presenting the kind of solutions to local community issues that sports clubs very often do by providing inspiration to young people and something for local people to be encouraged by and to look up to.

The club has had not only strong local backing, but a benefactor, who used to play in his younger days for Penzance and Newlyn. Sir Dicky Evans has been a benefactor and supporter of the club for many years. He is not able to do that now, but certainly for two decades has provided enormous support for the club.

I want to bring the debate back to the risk posed to a large number of clubs, including the Cornish Pirates, by the way in which too much resource is being siphoned into premiership rugby, as the hon. Member for Camborne and Redruth described, with the result that all other tiers of rugby are suffering. The precipitous way in which decisions have been made in recent years about the covid loan, which the hon. Gentleman referred to, has created an unexpected debt for many clubs, and the Cornish Pirates is certainly not immune from that. I wrote to the Secretary of State about that—the Minister very kindly responded to me—because the impact of the covid debt is very significant indeed, and I hope the Minister will reconsider the Government’s approach to it, or intervene with Sport England to look at ways to reprofile those loans.

If the Cornish Pirates were to fold tomorrow, the club has no significant assets of its own and does not own its own ground, even though it does not have many debts. I fear there could be significant consequences if it falls into significant debt now as a result of the covid loan. Reprofiling that loan would be a win-win for everybody: not only would that great club continue, but the debt would in time be repaid. I hope Ministers look at this issue much more closely. I hope they do not simply stand aside and keep this thing at arm’s length, but intervene to support such clubs.

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[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport (Stephanie Peacock)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Desmond. I am pleased to be responding to the debate, and I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Camborne and Redruth (Perran Moon) on securing it. He also represents Hayle, as I understand, and he speaks with great experience on this issue.

Like the shadow Minister, the hon. Member for Old Bexley and Sidcup (Mr French), I start by saying that rugby—both union and league—makes a huge contribution to our country. I congratulate England and Scotland on their success in the men’s Six Nations this weekend, and my commiserations go to Wales and Ireland on their hard-fought defeats. The Six Nations is a jewel in the crown of international rugby union. As we approach the last weekend of the Six Nations, I wish all the home nations every success.

Besides the international level, professional and grassroots rugby clubs are often at the heart of communities. It is right that we take a moment to celebrate the sport and the volunteers who keep clubs running across the country. The huge contribution they make has been outlined by Members across the Chamber today, in particular my hon. Friend the Member for Weston-super-Mare (Dan Aldridge) and the hon. Member for St Ives (Andrew George), who spoke about the heritage of the game and the importance of aspiration for young people.

I will discuss some of the concerns that have been raised about the governance of rugby union, in particular in the context of grassroots rugby, which is how my hon. Friend the Member for Camborne and Redruth framed his opening contribution. Good governance is an important bedrock on which the sport sector stands, and I have been pleased to see steps taken in recent years to address governance issues in the sector.

Governance is vital to ensuring transparency, accountability and fairness in the sport and physical activity sector. The revised code for sports governance sets out the levels of transparency, diversity and inclusion, accountability and integrity that are required from sporting governing bodies—including the RFU—that seek and are in receipt of DCMS and national lottery funding from UK Sport and Sport England. The code has proved successful in setting clear expectations around good governance and diversity. Indeed, 88% of organisations funded by Sport England and UK Sport have said that the code has tightened their governance.

Turning to the governance of rugby union specifically, I am aware of some of the recent challenges that the sport has faced. I met with the RFU and Premiership Rugby in early November to discuss the future of the sport. It was valuable to hear about the actions that the sport is taking to address some of the challenges that have been discussed today. I am committed to continuing to work with the sport to support its long-term financial sustainability. The hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon) asked about devolved Governments. I am hoping to visit all the devolved Governments in the coming weeks, so I will reach out to him when I do that.

My hon. Friend the Member for Camborne and Redruth rightly raises the importance of good governance in the sport at all levels, and he specifically raised grassroots representation on the RFU board. I note that there is a board member with responsibility for the community game, and he is one of the nine representatives on the board. I am not able to comment more specifically on the board arrangements of the RFU, as that is a matter for them, but I note the concerns that my hon. Friend has outlined, and I am sure that the RFU will have heard the argument for greater grassroots representation.

Central to good governance is the effective communication between a governing body, its members and grassroots club. It is imperative to a healthy sport. It does, however, mean suitable independence of decision making on any publicly funded board. I am aware that, after a period of engagement between the RFU and grassroots clubs, the RFU has said that it will take action to improve communications with the rest of the sport, including by proactively communicating and seeking input from members on key issues. The shadow Minister spoke in detail about that, so I will not repeat him, but the points he made were correct and welcome. I welcome this work and encourage the RFU to continue to focus on engagement with its community and grassroots clubs.

My hon. Friend the Member for Camborne and Redruth raised the issue of tackle height in the community game. The safety and wellbeing of everyone taking part in the sport is paramount. The Government understand that there are ongoing concerns about this important issue. National governing bodies are responsible for the regulation of their sports. Although DCMS cannot comment on individual cases, we do expect NGBs to make the health and safety of players their top priority.

I understand that the RFU council approved lowering tackle height in community rugby in England after the RFU analysed other international case studies, including from South Africa, New Zealand and France, but my hon. Friend makes a valid point that changes to rules, particularly around tackle height, must be based on the best possible evidence. I will take away his specific question about concussion data on match day cards. The Government will continue to advocate for sports to consider how safety can be best approached, but I am sure that the RFU will have heard my hon. Friend’s specific points today.

The first national guidance for concussion in grassroots sport was introduced in 2023, and was developed by international experts on concussion and acquired brain injury to better identify, manage and prevent the issue. We continue to encourage national governing bodies to adapt the guidance to their own sport where appropriate. We recognise the important work done recently on UK-wide grassroots sport concussion guidelines, which were produced to support sports, players and parents across the country. The Government will continue to prioritise participant safety to ensure that everyone can take part in sport as safely as possible.

I recognise the financial difficulties faced by many clubs involved in rugby union. I recognise the positive contribution that clubs such as the Cornish Pirates RFC and many others make through the community and school sports programme, which the hon. Member for Old Bexley and Sidcup mentioned. During the pandemic, organisations could apply to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport for loans through the sport survival package to support the sector. Those loans were provided to ensure the survival of clubs during the pandemic, but it remains the clubs’ responsibility to ensure the longer-term sustainability of their funding.

The Government monitor the financial situation of rugby union closely, but we also have a responsibility to the taxpayer. That includes the recovery of moneys loaned during the SSP.

[Andrew George]

Surely the Minister understands that if a club such as the Cornish Pirates were to fold, that responsibility to the taxpayer would not be served, because that debt would be unpaid, so it is far better for her to intervene and assist those clubs to overcome that problem.