Welsh Rugby Union chief executive Steve Phillips has quit, the WRU announced on Sunday, six days after several women in the organization spoke out about the sexist culture there.
“Phillips attended the meeting to set up a task force” announced on Friday to investigate sexist, racist or homophobic behavior within the federation, “but has since come to the conclusion that he does not can no longer be the person at the helm of Welsh rugby, ”explains the Welsh federation in a press release.
Phillips was not personally targeted by any charges, but he explained in the press release that he had “come to the conclusion that it is now time for someone else to lead the way”.
"I wholeheartedly agree with Ieuan's (Evans, WRU Board Chairman) commitment to re-examining and improving our culture and behaviors at the federation and I give my full support to the new independent working group.
I am happy to have been able to initiate this process at WRU,” he added.
Nigel Walker appointed acting CEO as Steve Phillips resigns👇https://t.co/tNrjk7F2Dt
— Welsh Rugby Union 🏴 (@WelshRugbyUnion) January 29, 2023
Nigel Walker, who was until then director of performance at the federation, has been appointed interim director general.
Last Monday, several women, including Charlotte Wathan, then director of women's rugby at the WRU, had testified to the sexist words or behavior of which they had been victims for years, in a BBC program.
A man, at Welsh training center Glamorgan in 2019, “said he wanted to rape me.
Taking me back to the hotel, tying me to the bed and raping me,” Wathan said, adding, “I remember getting sick from it, like from being punched in the stomach.
I remember being in a state of shock and saying to myself + did I really hear that? +”.
“Everyone laughed,” she continued, “I left the room and burst into tears.
A former WRU employee, interviewed on condition of anonymity by the BBC, even claimed to have written a memo in 2018 for her husband in case she committed suicide following sexist harassment.
