The WRU is headed by the President (Terry Cobner), chairman (Richard Collier-Keywood) and CEO (Abi Tierney).

The SWFU though were poorly organised, and although they arranged fixtures between a South Wales team and various English clubs, they were often victims of fixture-clashes and were accused of lacking energy.

In 1880, Richard Mullock, secretary of the Newport Athletic Club, decided to take matters into his own hands and without the backing of the SWFU organised an international match against England.

[4] On 12 March 1881, eleven clubs met in the Castle Hotel, Neath to form what would be accepted as a Welsh rugby union.

The Welsh Rugby Union has a major role in the development of coaches, referees and players throughout all ages for both men and women.

They also own the home of Welsh rugby union, the 74,500 capacity Millennium Stadium, Cardiff, "an icon of the modern Wales".

[8][9] After the national team the next highest level of representation in Wales is the four regions based around top club sides, but representing a larger area.

The WRU had hoped to reduce the teams to four regions but Cardiff and Llanelli successfully argued for stand-alone status.

In August 2008 WRU chief Roger Lewis confirmed that the body was looking at a proposal to reinstate a fifth Welsh region, based in North Wales.

Pro-independence group YesCymru created mock-up WRU logos using a leek, daffodil and harp instead of the three feathers.

A three-person chair of Dame Anne Rafferty, Quentin Smith and Maggie Alphonsi was appointed for an investigation.

The review involved conducting 50 interviews with groups or individuals, and it assembled a 5,000-page document of evidence, the findings were the WRU was suffering a general "failure of governance".