New Welsh Rugby Union chair Ieuan Evans would not be moved on the future of chief executive Steve Phillips and performance director Nigel Walker as he laid out his vision for a more modern governance.
The former Wales and Lions wing, who holds the position of Lions chair in addition to his role with the WRU, also stressed that this was a time of opportunity as he called bringing the community game and the elite game closer together "fundamentally part of the mission".
The appointment of Evans comes at a time of uncertainty in Welsh rugby, with the future of the current Wales coach Wayne Pivac up in the air. So too are the futures of many current professionals across the four regions, with no financial deal being reached between the four sides and the WRU. Will Rowlands' impending move to Racing 92 unlikely to be the last as Cardiff, Dragons, Scarlets and Ospreys are left unable to offer contracts to players at this moment in time.
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Earlier this week, Evans was unable to offer any sort of timescale for either the Autumn Nations Series review - which will determine Pivac's future - or the Professional Rugby Board deal that would move the professional game out of financial paralysis.
However, he did admit the WRU would be naive not to recognise time was of the essence with both Wales and England understood to be looking at Warren Gatland as a potential interim coach. He also added that he was mindful of the players' livelihoods being at stake with the PRB deal but said they were "hopeful that significant progress has been made".
But when it came to reviewing the structure of the Welsh Rugby Union on a wider basis beyond Pivac and his coaching team, Evans was relatively vague on the futures of Phillips and Walker.
When current CEO Phillips was appointed on an interim basis in September 2020, then-chair Gareth Davies said that a "possible new chairperson would more than likely prefer to appoint their own chief executive". However, Davies' replacement Rob Butcher called Phillips the "best person for the job" when he was appointed to the role in a permanent basis in March 2021.
As for Walker, he had been a vocal critic of the WRU as an outsider, previously warning of impending catastrophe in his role on the Cardiff board - particularly around the financial well-being of the four professional sides and how that would affect the fortunes of the national team.
Those predictions have largely proved prophetic despite Walker joining the WRU as performance director. Just this week, he was embroiled in a dispute on social media over Rowlands' contract situation at the Dragons.
When asked whether he would review the positions of either Phillips or Walker, Evans said: "It's now about focusing on what we need to do immediately. The role of the board is to challenge, scrutinise and support in equal measure.
"It's always about those elements, to look at the well-being of the organisation."
When it was put to the new chair that from the outside looking in, Welsh rugby was not in a healthy position, Evans insisted that "we can't drag ourselves down" as he claimed there are "better times ahead"
"It's a Welsh trait to look at the negative, there are a lot of positives as well," he added. "There still is a drive to ensure that Wales and Welsh rugby is still at the top table.
"I think we have an opportunity to be transformative here. There's a huge opportunity moving forward.
"Rugby has such strong advantages because it is deeply embedded in the culture and geography in our country. The national teams - men and women - have such a platform.
"I think we forget how highly thought of it is outside of our borders. Never forget that. It is incredibly powerful. We need to channel that."
When Evans was announced as chair, he spoke about picking up the mantle of governance reform from his predecessor, Butcher. At this year's AGM, the governing body's motion for the option to appoint an independent chair fell short of the 75% voting share required from the member clubs to be passed.
Evans remains supportive of the motion, saying: "The expectations on our board these days are to be truly representative of our game as a whole.
"Wales is evolving and changing. We are the national governing body of our national game. We have to be reflective of that. But there's an opportunity for us, as a governing body and a commercial entity, that requires skillsets, to be a skill-based board.
"There are new challenges that any commercial entity would be confronted with and we need expertise. Having Catherine Read, Malcolm Wall and Henry Engelhardt [all on the WRU board] can bring a significant commercial acumen and pedigree that is beneficial to us as a board, as an organisation and as a game.
"We need that and we need to strengthen it even further because there's even more opportunities moving forward."
The move to modernise its governance still garnered around 65% support, but the WRU came under criticism from some clubs for not being open in how they went about spreading the message - with some citing a lack of time to properly discuss the motion.
It's seems likely that the motion would be passed in next year's AGM, although some at the professional clubs would argue that could be too late. Unlike former chair Davies, who outlined a plan to streamline and modernise the board, Evans wouldn't specifically elaborate on what other changes could be made beyond an independent chair.
"Obviously we didn't put a compelling or convincing enough case forward," said Evans. "We got many of those points through, but not all of them.
"We need to reassess that, but also allay fears. This is an opportunity, this is transformation.
"Was it the messages? Was it not clear enough? Did we not extol the virtues and benefits of what we were doing? That's what we need to address.
"Also, did we not allay the fears? People don't like change necessarily. The one thing we do is adapt and evolve.
"That's how you not only survive, but flourish. Let's not be fearful and take the opportunities. Life will allow you an ability to maximise on that and be successful.
"That's our aim. That success is important for us, not only in itself, but for more intangible elements as well.
"It's about moving forward and evolving as an organisation. Governance doesn't stop, it evolves.
"You're stress-testing it on a daily basis. You're constantly looking to ensure that you are fit for purpose and that Wales' national game of rugby union, which is so deeply embedded up and down our communities.
"We have a roof, when it works, but it can't stay in place without the foundations in place. Nothing is mutually exclusive in welsh rugby. Everything is interlinked, everything is interdependent."
One area that Evans particularly appears to want interlinked is the community game and the professional game. While many would call for the two to be governed separately, Evans - while insisting Welsh rugby simply "can't be about money" - believes aligning the two closer together is "fundamentally part of the mission".
"When you eat at the the top table, there's a cost involved," he said. "So money will come into it but it can't pull you by that. It has to be optimal.
"We're a country of 3.2 million people. We have to make sure those pathways are such a fundamental part of the game that they work, to ensure that talent comes through and thrives and is successful.
"We have to produce our own. We have to ensure that flow of talent works. The conversations we have with the regions regarding academies and the role that with community clubs have as they are the ones who create that raw material.
They bring the sheer critical mass needed. Nothing is mutually exclusive. We need that number of talent coming through the community game, going into the regional system and then potentially playing here (Test rugby).
"We owe our boys and girls who are starting the game when they are young a structure that is fit to allow this talent to come to the fore. We can't play the money game."
He continued: "We cannot compete until we're unified in our aims, ambitions and how we operate. If there's a role at all, it's ensuring that, as chairman of the board, that culture. You can't dictate a culture, you instil it. It percolates down.
"We need to show as a board that authority that we're working on the best information and we challenge, we scrutinise, we counsel and we support.
"That's our role as a board. We challenge our executive to produce that evidence and come up with policies that allow us to keep up with the challenges and the opportunities in the modern game."
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