How rugby league may be set for a changing of the guard off the field

RUGBY league chiefs are set to call for a winding back of the clock when it comes to governance.

Peter V’Landys, boss of the Australian game, called for an independent board to run the sport here.

But SunSport has learned those behind a ‘club-led strategic review’ into the sport will push for just that.

And until Super League’s ‘split’ for the Rugby Football League in late 2017, that is how it was.

Now Nigel Wood, the then RFL chief executive essentially overthrown by clubs eight years ago, is back as its senior executive director, the ‘strategic review’ into rugby league brought an increase of the top flight to 14 clubs.

In a bid to stop clubs’ self-interest dominating, it is also set to bring the recommendation for the independent board.

That would be music to V’Landys’ ears after he met with Wood, RFL chief executive Abi Ekoku and owners of Warrington, Wigan and Hull FC – Simon Moran, Mike Danson and Andrew Thirkill.

He said: “It’s all got to be independent.

“Working on an independent board, you make decisions that are best for the game as a whole because the hardest thing for an administrator is all the different participant groups there that push their own barrow.

“That’s what they’ve got to do here.”