WRU chair Ieuan Evans prepares for pivotal vote on Welsh rugby’s future

I t is no exaggeration to say the entire future of Welsh rugby is at stake in Port Talbot this Sunday morning. “You sense it is a significant moment in our history,” confirms Ieuan Evans, chairman of the Welsh Rugby Union (WRU) and a former national captain, as he awaits the critical vote which will determine if the sport in Wales can step back from the abyss. “We love a watershed in Wales, we have them every fortnight.”

Evans’s slightly dark humour is understandable. There is a good reason why he is spending his 59th birthday talking to the Guardian and it is because the WRU faces a binary choice. Either there is approval for a package of governance reforms that drags it into the 21st century or total disaster looms. Should the WRU not obtain the necessary 75% majority at this weekend’s emergency general meeting, the dinosaurs will inherit the earth.

Overly dramatic? Not in the context of the grim allegations of sexism, misogyny and a toxic culture within the WRU, currently the subject of an independent review. Or the continuing influence of the amateur “blazer brigade” on a supposedly modern, professional organisation. And we have not yet mentioned last month’s strike threat by the national squad, the financial problems engulfing the regions or the existential threat to rugby union in one of its traditional heartlands.

With prominent sponsors also poised to abandon ship in the event of a “no” vote, Evans and the WRU’s acting chief executive, Nigel Walker, have been working flat out to persuade the grassroots to back their special resolution. The 282 voting member clubs and affiliated organisations will be asked to approve a more independent-minded and more diverse WRU board, with at least five of the 12 directors set