English rugby ‘on the cusp of something spectacular’ says under-fire RFU boss

Rugby Football Union (RFU) chief executive Bill Sweeney is convinced he is still the right man to lead the organisation despite the English game being stuck in a crisis and revealed that “we are on the cusp of something quite spectacular”.

Wasps, Worcester, London Irish and Jersey Reds have collapsed in just over 12 months and at the start of the year the RFU triggered a grassroots revolt through its handling of the tackle height being lowered at community level.

Concerns raised over Sweeney’s leadership

Just before England’s win over Argentina in their World Cup opener last month, RFU council members sent a letter to the board raising concerns over the leadership of Sweeney and chairperson Tom Ilube.

However, Sweeney said the “cynical” rebellion had been faced down at Friday’s council meeting, and that it was staged by a “small group of people who are no longer in the game or have agendas that are not necessarily in the best interests of the game”.

Meanwhile, England have not finished above third place in the Six Nations since 2020 and the RFU fired head coach Eddie Jones in December, giving his replacement Steve Borthwick just nine months to prepare for the World Cup.

“It’s probably for others to say if they don’t feel I am the right person to do it,” Sweeney said. “I personally feel I am given my experience, given my background and my balance of business and sport. I feel I am the right person to do that.

“I came into this role for one simple reason and it’s because I’m very passionate about this game.

“There’s probably a large number of my friends and family who would be quite happy if I didn’t do it any longer. But I do believe that we are on the cusp of something quite spectacular here.

“This has been a unique moment in time because of the financial challenges, because of the working relationship with Premiership Rugby, our ability to change that relationship around the partnership, to fix the things that have stopped us winning Six Nations on a regular basis.

“The work that we’re doing in World Rugby around Nations Cup, the global calendar – that all plays into this as well.

“I feel that I have the energy, I’ve got the passion and I’ve got the desire to see this through. Now if somebody else thinks differently about that, that’s also equally fine.

“You don’t wake up every morning enjoying it, but that’s the reason why I would like to carry on.”

Accused of being ‘asleep on the job’

Last November, Sweeney was accused by a Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee hearing of being “completely asleep on the job” and told that he should consider resigning in response to the financial crisis that led to Wasps and Worcester entering administration.

Sweeney has said he will implement structural reform “to fix a number of issues that have been broken for some time” which will end the “boom and bust periods when it is more based on hope”.

He also confirmed that negotiations are proceeding for 25 England players to be placed on ‘hybrid contracts’ that would give Borthwick more control of his most important players.

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