Coventry rugby club has appointed a new member to the board of directors in an attempt to bring their public image up to scratch.

The Coundon Road side announced that John Clarke, who owns and runs a public relations company in the city, would be joining the club to help with corporate hospitality.

Chairman Keith Fairbrother believes that Clarke’s role is essential if Coventry is to move forward.

He said:

"We obviously need to get ourselves into the real world in terms of marketing the club and this will move bring some professional expertise to that.

"Having now established our first season, we want to make sure that our sponsors get better value from the club in terms of what they are being offered during the next campaign.

"We want people to feel that we are going forward hand in hand rather than a charitable act bringing us back from the ashes."

Clarke hit the headlines in Coventry six years ago when he led a consortium that was attempting to buy the Coventry City Football Club, but their bid was unsuccessful.

Coventry has also put in a bid to buy troubled first division club Richmond and trade league places with them, but Fairbrother believes this may have been unsuccessful.

He said:

"When Richmond went into administration we put forward an offer that would have given them our second division share which meant that they could have stayed in rugby, and we would have taken over their first division place.

"That seemed a sensible way to keep them playing rugby and we also offered £600,000 but I have now been told unofficially that our bid has been topped, but it shows our ambition."