Rugby Football Union CEO Ian Ritchie wrote to U.K. Shadow Sports Minister Rosena Allin-Khan "to defend the decision to not renew the contracts of the England Women's 15-a-side team." Allin-Khan wrote to Ritchie last Tuesday to "urge him to reconsider the move" as it suggested the RFU was "far less than fully committed" to the women's game. Ritchie wrote back to Allin-Khan to say that the RFU was "extremely proud" of its record in women's rugby and that it takes "player welfare extremely seriously" (London INDEPENDENT, 7/29).
The Scottish Rugby Union is "planning to create six semi-professional franchise clubs as part of a radical restructuring of the game in Scotland." The SRU would invest at least £100,000 ($131,000) annually "in each of the teams for the first five years." There is "likely to be one team based in Glasgow, one in Edinburgh, one in the Borders and one in the North and Midlands district, with two others elsewhere" (BBC, 7/29).
New Zealand will appeal World Rugby's ruling that All Blacks player Sonny Bill Williams will not "complete a disciplinary suspension in time to play next month's Bledisloe Cup test against Australia." Williams was suspended for four matches after being sent off during the second test against the British & Irish Lions on July 1 for a "dangerous shoulder charge." Williams missed the third test against the Lions, a Super Rugby match for Super Rugby side Blues and will sit out a match for his Counties-Manukau province. But a World Rugby judicial panel ruled an All Blacks warmup match -- proposed by New Zealand as the fourth match of Williams' suspension -- is "not acceptable" (London TELEGRAPH, 7/28).
The British Horseracing Authority said that it has "taken overall responsibility" for resolving the "wrong horse" incident at Yarmouth. It "stopped short, however, of committing a possible seven-figure sum for improved technology and other initiatives that could prevent the mix-up" from happening again. The BHA launched an investigation into the events at Yarmouth on Thursday, "which will ascertain if the incident was potentially more than just an unfortunate mistake" (LONDON TIMES, 7/29).
