WRU's women's team

Photo by Huw Evans Agency / The Welsh Rugby Union

The Welsh Rugby Union is the governing body of rugby union in Wales. The WRU is responsible for the running of rugby in Wales, overseeing 320 member clubs, the Welsh national team and National Leagues and Cups.

What Welsh services do you offer?

We offer a bilingual monthly newsletter as well as a bilingual annual report. We welcome correspondence in Welsh and ensure that responses are provided within 24 hours. We also have a bilingual telephone system. From the 2026/27 season onwards, it will once again be possible to register players bilingually.
On matchdays, we provide bilingual supporter guides. Welsh is clearly visible on our tickets, and we have increased bilingual content in our official programmes from 10% to 35%. We ensure that announcements over the public address system at our matches and events are available bilingually, and we use Welsh music and music from Wales at our events.

At the Principality Stadium, bilingual tours are available, and we offer a free translation service to sponsors and third-party event organisers.

Key correspondence from the Executive Team, Council, and Board to clubs is delivered bilingually, and we provide a translation service at our Annual and General Meetings.

In 2025, there were 466 Welsh-language articles on our website, and 13 face-to-face courses were delivered in our clubs in Welsh. We have a presence at the Urdd Eisteddfod, the National Eisteddfod, and Tafwyl, and we use Welsh consistently and creatively across our graphics and social media.

We also provide Welsh confidence training for players. Internally, we offer free Welsh lessons for staff and share Welsh music weekly on our intranet.

Why is using Welsh important to your organisation and the sport sector in general?

As one of the country’s leading organisations, the Welsh Rugby Union is proud to accept the responsibility and privilege of promoting the Welsh language and Welsh culture.

Describe the process of preparing a Welsh Language Development Plan.

We would like to commend the process and the support we received while preparing the Welsh Language Development Plan, and we encourage any sports organisation to go for it.

Why is it important that you have received Cynnig Cymraeg? What are the benefits for you?

Receiving approval for the Cynnig Cymraeg has set a clear framework of targets and ambitions that significantly support us in increasing and standardising our use of Welsh within the organisation.

What are the benefits of offering a Welsh language service to your service users? 

As our members and clubs own the Welsh Rugby Union, it is entirely natural for us to use Welsh. This emphasises our distinctiveness as a nation, which is very important, and it also offers marketing and commercial opportunities.

Could you share a recent example of good use of the Welsh language with us?

By offering Welsh-language services free of charge to Taylor Swift, she spoke some Welsh during her concert at the Principality Stadium, which received 13.28 billion impressions across traditional and social media.

Would you encourage others to work towards the Cynnig Cymraeg, and why?  

Without doubt, we would encourage others to do so, as the process is straightforward and has provided real guidance and value to us at the Welsh Rugby Union.

Do you have any advice for any organisations that are considering working towards the Cynnig Cymraeg?  

Go for it. Our Welsh-language provision is not perfect yet, but with the support of the Cynnig Cymraeg there is no doubt that the services we provide to our supporters have been significantly strengthened.