Chairman of the Dragons David Buttress has labelled calls for cutting the number of rugby regions in Wales as a “reductive mindset. " He also believes the game has huge commercial and global reach potential despite presently being hamstrung by what he described as an “old fashioned and risk averse” leadership of the game.
The former chief executive of Just Eat and serial entrepreneur and investor said a deal was close on taking the Dragons out of WRU majority ownership - a condition of a yet to be signed off new six-year funding deal for the four regions with the crisis hit union, which will see a significant reduction in player budgets.
Mr Buttress, who took on the role as chair of the Rodney Parade region in 2017, said like the famous Monty Python Holy Grail sketch of the black knight cutting off his limbs and describing them as only flesh wounds, it would be folly do so in Wales (region reduction) without setting out a new strategy for the game - underpinned by the ultimate aim of Wales winning a Rugby World.
