Former England captain Tom Wood has been given a key role on Premiership Rugby’s new sporting commission, as the league looks to transform how the club game is run.
The commission has unprecedented decision-making powers as part of a range of governance changes.
It comes after a disastrous period off the field, with Worcester, Wasps and London Irish all going out of business.
Wood won 50 caps for England, retiring in 2022 after a 15-year career.
The former flanker won the Six Nations in 2011 and 2017, captained the national side on their tour of Argentina in 2013, and led Northampton to the Premiership title in 2014.
He will provide a player’s perspective as part of the seven-person commission, which will include three more independent figures from sport and business.
Ministry of Justice board member Mark Rawlinson – part of the ‘Red Knights’ group which attempted to buy Manchester United in 2010 – will also be part of the commission, as will leading football executive Jane Purdon and governance expert Carys Williams.
The panel will be chaired by Premiership Rugby official Nigel Melville and will also include chief executive Simon Massie-Taylor and rugby director Phil Winstanley.
Melville said: “Our goal has always been to strengthen our governance and make internal decision-making more agile, whilst also bringing about greater independence to any contentious issues.”
Massie-Taylor said the launch of the commission was a “landmark moment for Premiership Rugby as we transform our ways of working”.
The commission has been given the power to make decisions on behalf of the 10 remaining Premiership clubs over crucial areas such as the calendar and season structure, in a bid to avoid the conflict and vested interests that has hamstrung the league’s decision-making process.
It will provide a quarterly update to the PRL’s investor board and will initially meet as a group eight times a year.
All seven members have one vote and decisions will be taken by majority vote.
As outlined last December, other governance changes will include the establishment of a financial monitoring panel, which will oversee all club finances in a bid to avoid the fates that befell Worcester, Wasps and London Irish.
Meanwhile, talks continue over a new Professional Game Agreement between the Premiership, the Rugby Football Union and the Rugby Players’ Association, as the game in England desperately attempts to recover from the calamitous events of the past nine months.
