The Rugby Football Union council – the decision-making body famously dubbed “57 old farts” by the former England captain Will Carling – is likely to be scrapped as part of a radical governance shake-up in the wake of Bill Sweeney’s survival as chief executive.
In a move that would represent the biggest change to the structure of the organisation in recent history and would appear to strengthen Sweeney’s position, an independent review has recommended two options to overhaul the RFU’s governance – both of which would do away with the council that now has 63 members.
