Lenihan: Radical overhaul needed, but will IRFU cede power?

Donal Lenihan today calls for a radical overhaul of the way Irish rugby is run as the game moves into its next phase, 18 years after the advent of professionalism.

In today’s Irish Examiner Inside Rugby column, Lenihan reveals the precise make-up of the Irish Rugby Football Union’s blueprint for the future of the game in this country. And while he applauds the imminent formation of a Professional Game Board to manage the professional game on behalf of the IRFU, as well as the appointment of a Performance Director, the former Ireland captain and team manager questions how much autonomy will be given to the person in the new role and whether the IRFU committee men are ready to cede power to a more professionally experienced group within the governing body.

“We are told that the appointment of both is imminent and that the approval of the IRFU committee to formulate the Professional Board has already been granted. That is a step in the right direction,” Lenihan writes.