{"id":33653,"date":"2026-08-15T04:24:16","date_gmt":"2026-08-15T04:24:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/welsh-rugby-union-former-wales-captain-davies-calls-for-board-to-step-down\/"},"modified":"2026-08-15T04:24:16","modified_gmt":"2026-08-15T04:24:16","slug":"welsh-rugby-union-former-wales-captain-davies-calls-for-board-to-step-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/welsh-rugby-union-former-wales-captain-davies-calls-for-board-to-step-down\/","title":{"rendered":"Welsh Rugby Union: Former Wales captain Davies calls for board to step down"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Welsh rugby&#8217;s governing body has recently doubled down on outlining its plans to cut the number of professional teams from four to three by 2028, with WRU-owned Cardiff and privately-backed Dragons set to be given licences.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">That announcement has plunged <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/sport\/rugby-union\/articles\/c171w048jdgo\" class=\"ssrcss-1fqyhkk-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\">Scarlets and Ospreys into doubt<\/a>, with the west licence either being awarded to the Llanelli-based side or their Swansea-based rivals.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">WRU chiefs have said the process to decide the framework for the final decision will begin in December and finish before the end of the 2026-27 campaign.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Scarlets managing director Jon Daniels has insisted there are no plans for a merger with Ospreys and called for greater transparency from the WRU.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Ospreys have since responded publicly for the first time by stating they believe four professional sides is the way forward, telling the WRU its plan to reduce a team is wrong.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The process for replacing Collier-Keywood is ongoing, but the WRU has indicated the successor for the independent chair role will need to support the three-team proposal.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Davies continued: &#8220;The economy and the game in Wales is suffering. It is time now for people to voice their opinions, ex-players, regions, and the clubs and the fans most importantly and say change is needed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;It is up to us to force the changes otherwise this is not going away and in five or 10 years we will be in a far worse state.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;Let&#8217;s get together and try and make a change.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Davies says that &#8220;Welsh rugby has stopped belonging to the people&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;That is the first thing I would fix,&#8221; wrote Davies.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;The people of Wales need to decide whether they want rugby union as part of their identity, culture and soul. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;And we all know the answer to that. The purpose of the Welsh Rugby Union is to deliver that to the people.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;To provide a game that exists in every village and town &#8211; that forms a foundation stone to build a pathway to bring on our best talent &#8211; into the regions and to the national side. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;To harness the unique passion and talent that exists in Wales and build a sustainable future.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Davies was talking after former Cardiff board member and Welsh businesswoman Hayley Parsons called for the WRU to stand down.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Rob Regan, a former chief operating officer of Principality Building Society, also says he is ready to stand as part of an alternative interim board and appoint a new permanent one.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/sport\/rugby-union\/articles\/c330yrpdlz0o?at_medium=RSS&#038;at_campaign=rss\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Welsh rugby&#8217;s governing body has recently doubled down on outlining its plans to cut the number of professional teams from four to three by 2028, with WRU-owned Cardiff and privately-backed Dragons set to be given licences. That announcement has plunged Scarlets and Ospreys into doubt, with the west licence either being awarded to the Llanelli-based [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":33654,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33653","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rugby"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33653","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33653"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33653\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33655,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33653\/revisions\/33655"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33654"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33653"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33653"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33653"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}