WRU: Wales’ sport body ‘cannot investigate sexism allegations’

The acting chief executive of the body that develops the sport in Wales said he had “no formal knowledge” of allegations of sexism at Welsh Rugby Union (WRU).

Sport Wales’ Brian Davies appeared alongside Chair Baroness Grey-Thompson at a Senedd committee on Wednesday.

The committee heard that the panel is not set up to hear from whistleblowers and has no authority to investigate allegations.

Baroness Grey-Thompson said she would like to tell sports governing bodies what to do, but that is not Sports Wales’ role.

The former boss of the Welsh women’s rugby team has told BBC Wales Investigates that a male colleague said in front of others in an office that he wanted to “rape” her.

Amanda Blanc, who stepped down in 2021 after two years as Chair of the Professional Rugby Board of Wales, recalled in her farewell speech that an elected WRU member had publicly made misogynistic comments, including that “men are the master race”.

The scheme saw the resignation of the chief executive and the establishment of an independent panel – backed by Sport Wales – to be chaired by a former judge.

Brian Davies told Senedd’s Culture Committee that while they were “aware of a few things that were in the public domain,” “in relation to the specific allegations that were aired…nothing was directly raised.”

“A little bit of what was publicly available was hearsay, a little bit rumor, a little bit gossip.”

Asked by Conservative MS Tom Giffard if investigative work was being carried out to get to the bottom of what was in the public domain, Mr Davies said they were “not an investigative body”.

“We are not that established. We have no legislative power.”

Alun Davies, Blaenau Gwent Labor MS, accused Mr Davies of giving a “conditional answer” and not making himself clear.

He told him that Sport Wales was aware of the difficulties in the WRU: “Your answers were so qualified that I felt Sport Wales knew corporately or had good reason to suspect that there were serious cultural problems in the WRU , and you have chosen to do nothing about it”.

“I refute that,” replied Brian Davies, adding, “We had no formal knowledge.”

Chairwoman Tanni Grey-Thompson said she would “absolutely” love to go to every major governing body to “nail equality, diversity, inclusion, stamp out sexism”.

However, she said Sport Wales has the ability to “ensure that public money” given to sport “is spent in the most appropriate way”.

“We can’t tell them what to do. I would like to? Yes – but that is not the role.”

Brian Davies said Sport Wales “is not set up to receive whistleblowing”, although he said all sports in the UK are “set up in the same way”.

He added that the Sport Wales committee has an impact on “tough governance” – the structures that run the organisation.

The Acting Chief Executive said it was “such a pity that the Annual General Meeting in October did not adopt a recommendation for an independent Chairman.

An extraordinary general meeting is scheduled for March 26 to push through governance changes.

Wednesday’s hearing was the committee’s second on the issue.

Earlier this month, Nigel Walker said there were “red flags” about sexism in Welsh Rugby Union (WRU) but the organization “denied it”.