Friday, 2 July 2010
The Board of the New South Wales Rugby Union has approved the re-affiliation of the Sydney Rugby Union for season 2011 after accepting the proposed constitution and governance structure.
The NSW Premiership Clubs are already listed as an affiliate in the NSWRU Constitution however apart from the clubs' representative on the NSWRU Board, this affiliation has remained dormant for more than a decade. The reformation of the SRU will allow this formal affiliation to be reactivated.
The SRU will become responsible for the management and governance of NSW Grade and Colts competitions in a similar setup to all other affiliate unions (e.g. NSW Country, NSW Juniors, NSW Suburban, Sydney Women etc) who already have this responsibility. Currently all operations relating to these competitions are the responsibility of the NSW Rugby Union.
"This is an exciting time with the clubs taking the formal step of taking back responsibility for the Colts and Grade competitions in Sydney club Rugby," said Will Jephcott, NSWRU Chairman. "The NSW Rugby Union has always been supportive of the clubs reclaiming control of their competitions, however it has been a long and involved process to ensure the governance structure is fair and manageable.
"The Tooheys New Shute Shield is the premier club competition in the country and we're confident that under the new structure the Sydney club scene will continue to prosper just as it has over the last three years."
The new SRU Board will consist of six directors, three of whom can be current office-holders at Premiership Clubs. There will be two independent directors who cannot have held an office-bearing position in a Premiership club in the past twelve months, while there will also be one director appointed by the NSWRU.
Club presidents appointed an interim board comprising Chris Birch (NSWRU Director), Steve Bartop (Eastern Suburbs), Graham Boyle (Gordon) and Geoff Baldwin (Parramatta) which has been responsible for investigating and producing the new proposed constitution and governance structure. The Premiership Clubs will now commence a process of finalising directors for the inaugural general meeting which will take place following the completion of the 2010 competition.
"A working group has been investigating this process for a number of years now so it is a credit to them that the clubs are in a position to bring a strong structure to the reformation of the Sydney Rugby Union," said Mr Birch, NSW Premiership Clubs representative on the NSWRU Board. "It has been important to get the process and the structure right; it has taken time, but we are now there.
"Input from the management and Board of the NSWRU has been central to the process and they have always been forthcoming with support and advice whenever we requested it.
"We now have a mandate to keep the process moving forward to ensure the SRU is ready to hit the ground running next season. There has been good improvement in the competition over the over last few years and the expansion of Super Rugby in 2011 brings new challenges - we're ready for that."