Judge Jeff Blackett discovers how deep Twickenham's murky waters run

Since taking over as the Rugby Football Union's chief disciplinary officer in 2003, Judge Jeff Blackett has placed a premium on transparency, insisting that all his reports are quickly put into the public domain on the governing body's website. He was to find, as he chaired a five-man panel to investigate the goings-on at HQ that led last month to the sacking of John Steele as chief executive, that some of his colleagues swam in murkier waters. Blackett had been charged by the RFU's council to look into not just the circumstances of Steele's departure but also his appointment last year. As a member of the legal profession, he insisted that the report be based on evidence which is why he was doubly surprised when, during his address to the council at its meeting at Twickenham on Sunday, he had to pause when the RFU's legal department head, Karena Vleck, received an email from solicitors representing Martyn Thomas, the chairman of the union's board of directors and the acting chief executive since Steele's departure, warning him that if he went ahead and made the panel's report public he would receive a writ for defamation. Thomas, who took over as the board's chairman in 2005 after his predecessor, Graeme Cattermole, had resigned having led a failed coup to oust the then chief executive, Francis Baron, emerged from the report with his reputation tarnished. Among the 11 recommendations of the panel was one that Thomas should be removed as chairman, a position he had vacated temporarily the previous month to take over as acting chief executive. Blackett was in the middle of explaining his panel's report when he was interrupted by Vleck, who showed him an email on her mobile phone. It was a letter from Thomas's solicitors, saying that he would file a suit for defamation immediately if the report was published. Blackett insisted on reading the email to the council members, having waived his legal privilege, and did so despite protests from Vleck. The chaotic scenes at Twickenham descended into farce as one member asked Vleck if Blackett, whose position is honorary, would be indemnified by the RFU should Thomas, a solicitor by profession, carry out his threat to take legal action. Blackett had said from the outset that the decision to make the report public was the council's to make as it had been its commissioner. Despite the solicitor's letter, he recommended that it be published. The board of directors argued against and won the subsequent vote. It was not how Blackett had envisaged the morning unfolding. He was confident that the council, who had instructed him to head up an inquiry panel after last month being dissuaded from taking a vote of no confidence in Thomas after Steele's sacking, would, given the evidential nature of the report, carry out the recommendations and not just remove Thomas as chairman but get rid of the entire board of directors who had unanimously told Steele he had to go. In the event, Thomas was ordered to stand down as chairman. He claimed later that it was his decision as he felt it inappropriate to hold two key roles in the Union, even though as long as he was acting chief executive there would be an interim chairman, but the rest of the board survived. Far from overseeing an overhaul of the administration at the top of the RFU, Blackett found himself pretty much confronting the status quo. Thomas said on Sunday afternoon that the board had recommended to the council that the report not be made public because some of its recommendations still had to be debated, which was true, but its contents were so explosive that questions would have been asked why the council had effectively done nothing despite being presented with evidence that governance had been far from good and despite being urged by Blackett to restore integrity to the governing body. Thomas also said that he had not had enough time to digest the report from the time he received it, 5pm on Friday, until the start of the council meeting at 8am on Sunday. However, he spent more than two hours with Blackett on Saturday morning going through it and was told that the panel envisaged his reign at Twickenham would end. While it was not in the council's power to remove him as acting chief executive, one of the RFU's representatives on the International Rugby Board or as chairman of Rugby World Cup 2015, those positions were the gift of the board of directors and the panel expected a newly elected board of directors to act on their report and remove Thomas from all three. As it is, it is Blackett who is considering his position. He asked some council members after Sunday's meeting whether his unpaid position on the RFU had become untenable. He was urged to carry on, but there is some manoeuvring inside Twickenham; one idea being floated is that Vleck, as a salaried employee, should subsume the role of chief disciplinary officer. Sunday's council meeting was designed to allow the RFU to move on from the Steele affair, but it proved more of a backward step.