Possibly the most infulential person of the modern game, Vernon Pugh was the man who led rugby into the professional era.

Vernon Pugh was, by his own admission, a rugby union player of strictly limited ability – a long association with the Cardiff High School Old Boys club and a handful of senior appearances for Pontypridd was hardly the stuff of legend, and he was never likely to join Gareth Edwards and Barry John as a priceless treasure of the Welsh golden era. Yet, as a rugby administrator of vision, he wielded unprecedented influence and led the most complex and politically embattled of team sports into territory unimagined by the vast majority of his peers, let alone by officials of earlier eras.

Vernon Pugh, rugby administrator and barrister: born Ammanford, Carmarthenshire 5 July 1945; called to the Bar, Lincoln's Inn 1969; QC 1986; Chairman, Welsh Rugby Union 1993-97; Chairman, International Rugby Board 1994, 1996-2003; married Dorinda Davies (three daughters); died Penarth, Vale of Glamorgan 24 April 2003.

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