Scottish Rugby Annual General Meeting 2023

EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND - NOVEMBER 18: Scottish Rugby Union President Colin Rigby during the SRU AGM event at Scottish Gas Murrayfield Stadium, on November 18, 2023, in Edinburgh, Scotland. (Photo by Ross Parker / SNS Group)

Chair of the Scottish Rugby Union Custodian Board, Professor Lorne Crerer, confirmed a quorum in his opening statement and thanked those for attending, both in person and online.

Prof. Crerar said: “The new governance structure, like all good governance models, is but an enabler to ensure we can all work together to meet the many objectives of our common purpose – the continued wellbeing, prosperity and brand of Scottish Rugby.”

After approval of minutes from last year’s AGM, the Scottish Rugby Union President, Colin Rigby, addressed the meeting and touched upon a number of initiatives he has witnessed in the last year, most notably the recent retrospective caps ceremony which took place at the stadium last week.

Rigby mentioned a number of club games and events he had attended and spoke of the great bond between rugby people. This thread was added to by Vice President Keith Wallace, who also highlighted the appreciation rugby owes to its volunteers, coaches and of course those who play the game.

Chief Financial Officer Hilary Spence then took the members through the Financial Statements and accounting explanation on a query from the floor. Receipt of Financial Statements followed, passed in full.

Prof. Crerar then moved on to ratification of Custodian Directors Maxine Manditsch and Alison Milne MBE, both of whom were ratified.

A special resolution, to remove a necessity for the Union’s year end to remain as 31 May so as to fall in line better with the general accounting landscape, particularly Six Nations, URC and EPCR, was passed. Similarly, a separate resolution to amend the notice period required for members for general meetings was approved entirely.

At the conclusion of the order of business, John McGuigan, Chair of Scottish Rugby Union Limited, read a statement to the members by way of an apology on behalf of Scottish Rugby with regard to the tragic passing of Scotland international Siobhan Cattigan, who won 19 caps and died at the age of 26. You can read the statement here.