🔷 THIS WEEK IN CONSULTATION: 12 September 2025 This is a short weekly update for everyone interested in the WRU consultation and engagement into the future of Welsh rugby. We will publish it on a Friday during the period of the consultation itself, which ends on 26 September 2025 🗓️ Week at a Glance Day […]
🔷 THIS WEEK IN CONSULTATION: 12 September 2025
This is a short weekly update for everyone interested in the WRU consultation and engagement into the future of Welsh rugby. We will publish it on a Friday during the period of the consultation itself, which ends on 26 September 2025
🗓️ Week at a Glance
| Day | Activity |
| Monday –Friday 5-12 September | Five annual District meetings (300 WRU member clubs are split into 9 Districts) to be held this week attended by WRU personnel |
| Public engagement survey continues to attract contributions | |
| Formal consultation meetings continue with WRU personnel visiting the Scarlets in Parc y Scarlets, hosting a meet with professional players and the WRPA and meeting the official supporters group from Cardiff Rugby | |
| Thursday 4 September | In Focus published on Welsh Rugby Union – WRU BLOG: Reflecting on SRC and why it matters for future of Welsh rugby
Blog published from Welsh Rugby Union – ‘In Focus’ – Pathways, Competitions and Academies |
| Friday 12 September | Second WRU consultation update published |
| Sunday 14 September | Consultation with Community Clubs |
📣 Consultation Launch
The WRU’s four-week consultation period is live. This is the most significant strategic review of elite rugby in Wales in a generation. We’ve published our current optimal system. Now we want to hear views from around the nation.
– The public survey is now open
– The consultation document sets out a bold vision for change
– We are meeting stakeholders across the game throughout the month
📊 Survey Engagement Snapshot (First 14 days)
We are pleased with the engagement with our public survey, with thousands of people who care about Welsh rugby giving us their views. We are encouraging everyone to continue to participate and welcome more responses from all those interested parties who are yet to contribute.
The consultation document itself has been downloaded 2,900 times, to date.
Our consultation page received 6.8k views in August and is currently on 16k views in September
Our public survey has received over 6.3k clicks
| Metric | Data |
| Completed responses | 5,791 |
| Gender split | 88.6% male, 9.8% female, 0.3% non-binary, 1.3% prefer not to say |
| Respondent types | All the respondents identify as supporters or fans of Welsh rugby. In addition 121 are current or former professional players, 661 community players, 958 community club members, coaches volunteers or officials, 676 parents or relations of players, 639 regional club members or season ticket holders and 127 from the commercial or business side of rugby. |
| Age demographic | 25.7% Under 35. 42.6% 36 to 55yrs. 28.4% 56 and over |
Graphic: Map of Wales showing engagement hotspots
👥 Stakeholder Engagements
This week, the WRU met with:
– Senior leadership from the Scarlets, meaning we have now met with all four regional clubs, after meetings with the Dragons RFC, Cardiff Rugby and Ospreys were held last week
– The Welsh Rugby Players Association chair Gareth Lewis and representatives from the players themselves
– Members of the official Cardiff Rugby supporters club (taking place Friday evening)
All meetings were led in person by Dave Reddin, WRU Director of Rugby and Elite Performance with contributions from the wider team at WRU. Invited groups decide their own attendees with all contributions welcome.
🏉 Other WRU milestones this week
– 10th September: Wales coach Steve Tandy is joined by Jac Morgan at Principality Stadium for a meeting with HRH Prince William to discuss and promote a new mental health hub in Cardiff in partnership with the Jac Lewis Foundation and The Royal Foundation
– Sean Lynn issues his review of Wales Women’s RWC campaign saying ‘We intend to be much more hands on with the Celtic Challenge and to be part of the strategy heading into the next Test match window’
– Newport will launch the defence of their Super Rygbi Cymru title tonight (Friday) with the hardest possible start when they host Llandovery at Newport Stadium. (KO 7.45pm, S4C)
– Annual General Meetings of WRU Districts continue with meetings is Districts begin, with meetings taking place in Districts A, J, B, H and E.
– Danny Wilson has been appointed as assistant coach to Steve Tandy, ahead of the Wales senior men’s squad’s Quilter Nations Series to be held at Principality Stadium this November
🗣️ How to Get Involved
– Take the survey
– Read the consultation document
– Share your views — every voice matters
Feedback from our public survey is showing strong support for change as well as a diverse range of opinions shown on what change should look like.
This fact will not surprise anyone but the detail and ideas provided in the responses we are gathering will prove invaluable to us as we enter the next stage of our process when a decision must be made.
Our meeting with the WRPA and players was extremely useful and gave us a clear view of players opinions. I appreciated the level of thought and analysis which they had as well as the clear articulation of ideas. The collective engagement of the group on behalf of their group was outstanding and I’m looking forward to our next meeting this coming week to progress the discussions. We have now held consultation meetings with each of our four regional clubs, after meeting the Scarlets this week, and I want to personally thank all of them for engaging in the process so constructively and comprehensively.
Each team has arrived well briefed and well researched with strong ideas about the best direction of travel for them and for their teams and fans.
The meetings have been collaborative and engaging and conducted in the spirit of togetherness as we search for the right solution for our game and all those involved with it.
We are asking all those who contribute in the consultation to be selfish. To look at the future from their own perspectives, we want the Dragons’ perspective from the Dragons and the Ospreys’ from the Ospreys and so on… It will then be our role to reach a recommendation which the WRU Board will consider based on all the perspectives we hear.
We expect to be challenged and, although we have put forward our optimal system and explained our rationale in detail for doing so, we also fully expect consultation to influence our thinking.
I don’t want to get ahead of myself or take any shortcuts here, but I can confidently say that our thinking is changing in positive ways as we progress.
In our meetings we have considered all options. There is collective recognition about the financial challenges at play and also concern about gametime for our quality players. There are differences of opinion about the ambitions we should have for each of our teams, although we are all ambitious.
There was absolute alignment about improving our pathway and we looked at the barriers to participation that may exist in our community game. We discussed coaching and accelerating player development. All with creative challenge at the heart of the conversation.
I’m really encouraged by the start of the consultation process and with some important themes emerging. We are working steadily through our key groups with the first supporters meeting (Cardiff) having happened today and the first of our community clubs engagements on Sunday.
Although this process is challenging, I remain excited about the future of Welsh rugby. This is our opportunity to correct our course, but also nurture and safeguard the things that are right with the current system. We are identifying each of these factors steadily and thoroughly. We will end up with a 360-degree view of where we are and where we could be and we know our game will be in a much better position following this process, whatever final decision is taken.
As part of our weekly dialogue during this consultation period we are looking closely at some of the important factors we must consider as part of designing our optimal solution for the game in Wales. This week our National Lead for Player Development and Pathways, John Alder, reflects on the first season of the Super Rygbi Cymru (SRC) and why it matters for the future of Welsh rugby.
John also joins myself and our Head of Women’s rugby, Belinda Moore, here for a more in depth look at our proposals for improvement in these areas.
Please take the time to read and I would also encourage anyone who has not yet done so to visit https://ymlaencymru.com/ and give their own views.
