A committee of Senedd members found "systemic failures in the culture" of the WRU and a "serious failure of governance" in not acting sooner.

Allegations of racism, misogyny, sexism and homophobia first came to light in a BBC documentary which aired at the beginning of the year.

The WRU's chief executive, Steve Phillips, resigned in January and Nigel Walker stepped in as acting CEO.

After the allegations emerged, the WRU confirmed an independent review panel has been set up to investigate the culture within the organisation.

A 33-page report on Friday by the Senedd sport committee recommended the WRU publish "an implementation plan" once the independent review panel releases its findings.

"There is a clear body of evidence that points to opportunities that were missed by the WRU to act on concerning behaviour, or to acknowledge and tackle a pattern of this behaviour," the Senedd report said.

"Taken together, these point to systemic failures in the culture of the WRU."

The WRU said in a statement it was "fully committed" to implementing all of the recommendations of the independent review.

"The committee are right to highlight that we should not wait until the taskforce completes its work before we make changes, specifically to ensure that our staff feel safe, supported and valued, and that we tackle incidents and behaviours in a robust and consistent matter," it said.

"We have invested in new procedures and enhanced and restructured our human resources team, with a particular focus on equality, diversity and inclusion."

It added: "This period of challenge has made us doubly committed to developing an everyday working culture that is professional, inclusive and welcoming."

The independent review's terms of reference also include actions and behaviour of WRU leadership, whether employees feel able to voice concerns, whistleblowing policy and procedures, and the WRU's response to individual complaints set out in the BBC Wales Investigates programme.

Chaired by Dame Anne Rafferty, the panel has recently called on people to give evidence in relation to its inquiry.

One of the claims is that one former member of WRU staff made a homophobic remark about former referee Nigel Owens.

Owens told Sky News in February he was "not surprised" to hear the claim but he was "confident" the WRU would have dealt with it had they been made aware at the time.

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When he was appointed, Mr Walker said Welsh rugby was "facing an existential crisis".

"We must now listen intently to what people from outside our organisation are telling us," he said.

"We care and are committed to equality, diversity and inclusion and we work hard in this space with dedicated resource and investment. But we need to do better. We need to do much better and we will."

The report comes ahead of a challenging World Cup for the national team in the autumn after a number of experienced players announced their retirement from professional rugby, including former Wales captain Alun Wyn Jones.