Welsh rugby’s governing body claim Tierney engaged regularly with the WRA and are insistent the CEO approved the payment of travelling reserves once involved in the negotiating process.

Tierney said the governing body’s board was made aware in August by the players that they had concerns with the contract negotiation process.

“The WRU welcomed this approach, and the WRU chair [Richard Collier-Keywood] immediately initiated two work streams,” she said.

“One was completion of the negotiations with a core team the second was a board-led review of the whole contract process.

“It isn’t appropriate to discuss the detail of confidential negotiations, but the WRU will publish the results and recommendations of the review [once] it has [been] undertaken very shortly.”