The sport's governing body have hit back in the face of criticism © IRB

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The International Rugby Board has rubbished the recent independent Putting Rugby First report insisting the critical analysis was "deeply flawed".

In a statement released earlier today the sport's governing body answered many of the criticisms levelled at them in the report and moved to defend their performance. The statement said:

"The IRB has reviewed the report titled Putting Rugby First. The deeply flawed piece of work by anonymous authors clearly ignores the substantial development work done by the IRB and Member Unions over the past 10 years.

"It fails to mention IRB governance changes including introduction of Regional Associations onto Council and internal management restructuring. There is no mention of the $US50m dollars invested each year in growing the Game around the world, the precise facts of the targeted expenditure within the Strategic Investment Programme or that Rugby is now a core sport in the Commonwealth, World and Asian Games and will become a part of the Pan-American Games from 2011 and hopefully soon the All African Games.

"It gives scant regard to the competitions created or funded by the IRB in Oceania, the Americas, Asia and Europe under IRB high performance initiatives within the Strategic Investment Programme, and ignores the fact that regions such as the Middle East, South America, Africa and Asia are hosting IRB tournaments. It does not properly recognise that under the guidance of the IRB the size and scope of the Rugby World Cup has grown exponentially in importance, reach and financial worth over the last eight years, to the benefit of all of our 116 Unions.

"It states that one of its sources of information is the IRB. No direct contact was made with the IRB and the report managed to leave out one of the five major IRB strategic goals - Rugby's re-admission to the Olympic Games.

"On the six suggested goals for Rugby identified by the report:

1. Democracy - While no system is perfect it is not unreasonable to argue that those that provide the bulk of players and money into the Game should have the bulk of the representation. All Unions are represented on the IRB Council. The Regional Associations have been strengthened and properly funded to run competitions and grow the Game. We will continue to ensure our democratic structures meet the needs of Rugby at any given point as the Game evolves.

2. Governance - The IRB applies corporate governance and management best practice. It has a good working relationship with all stakeholders in the Game, including IRPA, and regular meetings with key stakeholders around the world are now commonplace. As the authors never spoke to the IRB they don't have an understanding of the organisation's structures or work practices.

3. Strategic Plan - Already in place and available from www.irb.com

4. Measurable objectives - Each year the IRB creates an annual operational plan that refers back to the Strategic Plan, all areas have KPIs and KMDs. Same applies to annual Union Trust grants and our more targeted Strategic Investments.

5. Hosting of RWC - IRB Council decided recently to tender both RWC 2015 and 2019 at the same time. One of the reasons for that was to increase the likelihood that a RWC will go to a non-traditional territory.

6. Olympic Games - One of the IRB's Strategic goals. The IRB has been working very hard for re-inclusion in the Olympics. The inaccurate report doesn't help Rugby's campaign as it paints an inaccurate picture of Rugby. Go to YouTube and type in Rugby is Reaching Out to see the quality of our Olympic materials.

Rugby now sits at the top table with the other major sports thanks to the efforts of the IRB and Member Unions over the past 10 years.

"That is exemplified by the IRB role in the ongoing governmental discussions in Europe about the specificity of Sport. The outcome of these discussions could have a profound influence on the shape of all major sports around the world. On the IRB front, of course there is always room for improvement.

"Where there is constructive criticism it will look at it and see if there is any merit and then act if necessary. Just as it has done over the past 10 years."

Click here to read the Putting Rugby First report

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