Rugby: Lindsay rules out extended stay at top

It was almost like old times at Rugby League headquarters with Maurice Lindsay back in the hot-seat.

The Wigan chairman, who was League chief executive from 1992-97, is heading up a task force charged with the job of restructuring the management of a game in crisis.

Brought in by outgoing chairman Rodney Walker, a long-time adversary, Lindsay and his gang of five are to seek out a new independent board of directors, headed by an all-powerful executive chairman.

Four of the seven-strong board resigned earlier this month and finance director Peter Webster was yesterday given temporary leave of absence on health grounds.

The RFL have been without a chief executive since Neil Tunnicliffe quit more than 18 months ago but Lindsay, who was briefly managing director of Super League before going back to Wigan two years ago, has distanced himself from a permanent return to Red Hall.

‘‘The role is not for me,’’ he said. ‘‘My life at headquarters has been and gone.’’

‘‘Everybody in the group has ruled himself out of any of the posts, from executive chairman downwards.’’

The other ‘‘king-makers’’ are League president Malcolm White (Swinton), Tim Adams (Huddersfield) and Gary Hetherington (Leeds).

A front-runner for the job could be Nigel Wood, the former Halifax chief executive who was yesterday appointed operations manager, in charge of the day-to-day running of Red Hall. He will be in place until the new board is formed, which could take up to two months.

Wood joined the RFL board as policy and resources director in August and was the architect of the strategic review which paved the way for sweeping changes to the game’s league structure.

The task force, or implementation committee, have been asked by Sir Rodney to implement the recommendations of the strategic review, the central plank of which is the introduction of a pyramidic National League structure operating under Super League.

They are also expected to forge ahead with unification, bringing Super League and the cash-strapped RFL back under one governing body.

The parent body is thought to be more than £1m in debt, largely as a result of the financially-disastrous World Cup, and redundancies cannot be ruled out.