Alex Bywater talks to WRU board member Julie Paterson about changing landscapes
JULIE Paterson still laughs at the memory of a fellow rugby boardroom member confusing her for the meeting’s interpreter. Paterson – who joined the Welsh Rugby Union in 1989 as an entry level accountant at just 19 – now works on the board of the WRU and represents her employer at PRO14, European Rugby and World Rugby level.
She tells the story of the meeting in the early 2000s to show how far her sport has come in terms of female representation at executive level.
“When I turned up for my first meeting a board member from another union initially asked me where the coffee was,” Paterson told TRP.
“I showed him as it was right behind me! Then he asked which language I was interpreting. That sort of thing was absolutely standard back then, but I use that story as a way of showing what’s changed.
“There is not a single union now that questions me turning up or the role I play.”
Paterson treads rugby’s corridors of power at the highest level both in Wales and on a global scale. It is all a far cry from when she first started out in rugby administration.
“The business is unrecognisable now,” she said. “My first job was in finance and then there was one tournament a year – the Five Nations.
“It was a very, very small staff. We went professional and it felt like we did so overnight. I’ve gone with the change and I’ve grown too. Welsh rugby has always wanted to make sure we are at the top table. We have never really taken our foot off the gas.
“From when I started in 1989 we’ve always been one of the main players.”
So too has Paterson.
The WRU became the first union in world rugby to have a woman on its executive staff when Paterson was appointed in 2005 and she has climbed the ladder to the top of the game.
In the last 30 years she has been at the forefront of Wales’ transfer from clubs to regions, the building of what is now Principality Stadium, the implementation and administration of the Rugby Services Agreement by which Welsh professional rugby is now governed and much more besides.
“There is not a single union now that questions me turning up or the role I play”
“I definitely never thought I’d get to where I am now,” said Paterson, surely a strong candidate to succeed Martyn Phillips as WRU chief executive when he departs.
“No one could have envisaged where we are today, but the positive of it is that it’s a global issue. That’s by no means discounting the impact Covid has had on the world, but this is an opportunity to get things right and turn a negative into a positive.
“As a sport it has allowed us time to take a step back to look at ways of shoring up the ship so we can come out of the other side of this not just in Wales, but globally too.
“I’m probably one of the more optimistic ones. Rugby is a fundamental part of our make-up in Wales. While it’s definitely going to be difficult not just returning to play but also over the next couple of seasons, do I think we’ll come out of this as we go into the next World Cup?
“Yes I think we will.” Having three brothers meant Paterson was forced to stand up for herself at an early age and she acknowledges her roles with PRO14 and European Rugby and reaching World Rugby level as career highs. As for the lows, she remembers past World Cup failures and the Rob Howley betting scandal.
women Amanda Blanc, Aileen Richards, Marianne Okland and Liza Burgess working in Welsh rugby’s boardrooms. She is also one of 18 women on a 51-strong World Rugby Council after a transformational governance review was undertaken in 2015/16.
So, does Paterson fancy stepping into Phillips’ boots with Wales?
Phillips has extended his stay to deal with the coronavirus pandemic but will soon step aside. “They are big shoes to fill. Like the rest of the executive board I’d do anything needed of me. I’ve got a great network and I’m well known across the rugby world,” she said, looking to the future.
“My passion is no less than it was and it doesn’t feel like the job is done.”
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