RFU more focused on burying its problem with monitoring ethnicity rather than addressing it, says leading race equality think tank

The Rugby Football Union is more focused on burying its problem with ethnicity monitoring instead of addressing it, according to one of the UK’s leading independent race equality think tanks.

Telegraph Sport can reveal the RFU does not monitor the number of players or coaches who identify as black, Asian or other ethnic minorities across elite levels of men’s and women’s rugby in England.

The organisation has also told Telegraph Sport it has “no plans in place” to start measuring BAME participation in the men’s Premiership, championship or in the Premier 15s, its top women’s competition, despite its recent commitment to improve diversity in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement.

When approached, the RFU acknowledged it needs to do more to achieve diversity and remains “determined to accelerate change.”

Last month, the RFU vowed to make representation on its council more diverse by ensuring at least 30 per cent of new council members are either women or those from black, Asian and minority ­ethnic communities.

That pledge came less than a week after the RFU council elected 11 new members, who were all white. Maggie Alphonsi, the 2014 Women’s Rugby World Cup winner and Telegraph columnist, is the only black person on the body’s 61-person council.

Dr Zubaida Haque, the interim director at the Runnymede Trust, the UK's leading independent race equality think tank, said: “It’s astonishing that the Rugby Football Union are not collecting and monitoring data of players, coaches, board members and other participants by ethnicity, given that data is the first step in identifying whether there are issues with participation, recruitment, retention and progression of black and ethnic minority people in the game.

“This is the entire reason that Theresa May set up the Government’s Race Disparity Unit in 2017 which collects and monitors data by ethnicity across all public sector areas.

“The complete lack of action on even collecting data by ethnicity makes you wonder whether the RFU is more focused on burying the problem rather than addressing it.”

More than a third of the players in Eddie Jones’ 31-strong squad at last year’s World Cup were from BAME backgrounds. This, however, is not reflected in the community game, where data on the number of BAME players and coaches is non-existent.

It is also not mirrored in England women’s squad: of the 28 professional women’s XVs contracts the RFU currently funds, just two are BAME.

The only recent BAME data the RFU could share with Telegraph Sport was from its inclusivity programme, Project Rugby, which it runs in partnership with Gallagher to increase participation from traditionally underrepresented groups.

In May last year, the initiative reached the landmark of introducing 25,000 players to the sport since its launch in 2017.

Of those, just 13 per cent were from BAME backgrounds, a further 19 per cent accounted for people with disabilities and 70 per cent were from low socioeconomic groups.

Arun Kang, the chief executive of Sporting Equals, the UK’s leading charity for racial equality and diversity in sport, said the RFU’s apathy in collating BAME data is reflective of why the charity launched its Race Equality Charter last year.

This encourages governing bodies to capture baseline ethnicity data and make solid commitments to tackling underrepresentation at all levels while celebrating positive role models and stories within BAME communities.

“Many organisations have an issue with capturing, monitoring and reflecting on BAME inclusion,” affirmed Kang.

“This lack of insight further elongates the issues surrounding inclusivity of BAME communities within the sport and physical activity sector.”

He added: “We have seen many national governing bodies independently seek us out as they wish to be part of the change and recognise that seeking assistance from BAME-led organisations is the best way to start.

“We would encourage the whole sports sector to take a hard look at their own internal practices and reflect on if they too could benefit from such an approach to embrace change and equality."