Martyn Thomas's six-year reign at the Rugby Football Union will end next month, not so much because of the pressure exerted by clubs who wanted him out because of the part he played in the sacking of the chief executive John Steele earlier in the year but because of England's inglorious World Cup campaign.
Thomas, who will stand down as the RFU's acting chief executive when his contract ends on 16 December and will lose his positions as one of the union's representatives on the International Rugby Board, the Six Nations Committee and the board of European Rugby Cup Ltd, has gone from being the most powerful figure in the English game to another victim of the political infighting that has blighted Twickenham for most of the year. He will also not take up his position as the chairman of the organising committee for the 2015 World Cup.
Before the start of the World Cup, he seemed to have secured his power base after fighting off two votes of no confidence proposed against him at meetings of the union's council in the summer. The votes were put because of criticism made of Thomas's conduct by an inquiry panel, chaired by the RFU's chief disciplinary officer, Jeff Blackett, which was instructed by the council to look into the circumstances surrounding the hiring and firing of Steele. When Blackett presented his report, he was interrupted by an email from Thomas's solicitors, warning that he would be sued for defamation if he published it.
Thomas survived the vote of no confidence that day after Bill Beaumont, a co-opted member of the RFU and the IRB vice-chairman, warned the meeting that getting rid of Thomas, who was then the chairman of the board of directors as well as the acting chief executive, would potentially compromise England's hosting rights in 2015, a claim the IRB later denied.
He survived another vote of no confidence in September, although only 30 of the 56 who were at the meeting, supported him. Disaffected council members then canvassed support from clubs, who were incredulous that, despite a damning report from the inquiry panel, the only change in the administration at Twickenham was that Thomas had resigned as chairman of the board, something he had to do anyway as acting chief executive.
He retained the backing of a majority of his board, but that support waned last month. After England's worst World Cup campaign for 12 years was marred by various incidents involving players off the field, Thomas, without reference to all his fellow directors and without informing the professional game board, commissioned Fran Cotton to conduct an inquiry into what had gone on and review the national setup.
It was seen by some as proof of a growing authoritarianism and once both the England squad and the Premiership clubs said they would have nothing to do with Cotton's inquiry, which was shelved on Wednesday because it had not been authorised by the game board, some of Thomas's previous supporters on the board turned on him.
They were under pressure because, with more than 100 clubs signing up to a special general meeting if Thomas survived Wednesday's board meeting, it was not only the acting chief executive who would have faced a vote of no confidence but also all the nonexecutive members of the board for failing to carry out the recommendations of the Blackett inquiry.
A number of board members discussed tactics before Wednesday's meeting and agreed that Thomas had to go. The ostensible reason for the departure of a man who was voted in as the chairman of the board in 2005 was that he wanted to spend more time with his family, but his departure was precipitated by the erosion of his support.
He will carry on as the acting chief executive until the middle of next month when he will relinquish all ties with the RFU having served the game in various capacities throughout the professional era. The RFU hopes to announce the full-time replacement for Steele on Thomas's final day, although it will be well into the new year before the successful applicant starts work.
The paradox for Thomas is that he was ultimately forced out by the rank and file, whose champion he had been throughout the years. When he was elected chairman in 2005, he beat the RFU board's preferred candidate, Jack Rowell, after a campaign in which he pledged not to agree any deals with the Premiership clubs if they had an adverse impact on the community game.
Thomas quickly showed himself to be a pragmatic chairman but also a forceful one. He played a central role in the removal of Andy Robinson as the England coach in 2006 and the departure of his successor, Brian Ashton, after the 2008 Six Nations. It was Thomas's idea to hire Martin Johnson as team manager and he was a supporter of Steele during the appointment process to find a replacement for Francis Baron.
Thomas eschewed consensus, which prompted his downfall. It was not just the removal of Steele that vexed some members of the council, but the manner of it, with negative leaks to the media, which were part of a campaign to bring Sir Clive Woodward back to Twickenham.
"To see the organisation you left in excellent shape fall into the current state if disrepair and disrepute is absolutely heart-rending," said Baron, who retired early in July last year after Thomas did not support his bid to remain in office until next February. "I have never seen anything like it in any major union. The number of bizarre decisions means there is no full-time chairman or chief executive, no finance director and no human resources director."
One IRB member described the RFU last month as the richest union in the world financially but the poorest in terms of governance. With two independent nonexecutive directors appointed to the board this week, a new chief executive due to be appointed and an independent report into the way the RFU is run due to be presented to council next month, a turbulent year should end with relative calm, but for Thomas it is back to his farm in west Wales.
