Gillham, below, who spent 20 years in pro rugby in France with Brive, becoming the first non-French President in the Top 14 and ProD2, has a wealth of experience as a club shareholder and administrator in one of the best-run league systems in sport, and he will have to muster all of it to get justice for the Championship.
Despite all the honeyed words of welcome from Conor O’Shea, the RFU performance director who is one of the RFU’s representatives on the seven-man board, Gillham is facing a baptism of fire.
O’Shea also sits on the Professional Rugby Board (PRB), previously the PGB, which, with the collusion of the RFU, has allowed the Premiership owners to establish a de facto ring-fence which blocks promotion-relegation.
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