UPDATED 5.58PM The Wellington Rugby Union had a male-dominated view on managing off-field misconduct, says a review of the Losi Filipo case.

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Dame Margaret Bazley has released a review of how the union handled the young player, criticising it for a lack of documents governing behaviour expectations.

In August, 18-year-old Filipo was discharged without conviction after pleading guilty in Wellington District Court to assaulting four people, including two women, last year.

His discharge led to a public outcry and his Wellington Lions contract being terminated by mutual consent.

After police were given leave to appeal against the court decision, Filipo was sentenced in November to nine months' supervision.

"The documents governing misconduct do not reflect public expectations and need a major overhaul.

They fall short of today's standards," said Dame Margaret's review.

Dame Margaret paid particular attention to the lack of women in top jobs at the union.

She said thousands of women were involved in rugby at a grass-roots level but weren't making it into the upper levels of administration.

WRFU chairman Iain Potter said the Wellington union had no women on its board and although the matter had been discussed before, nothing had been done about it.

"Sometimes there needs to be a catalyst for change. I think if you look at any sort of social change, quite often there's a catalyst for it. Arguably we should have been ahead of that and not required a catalyst. Dame Margaret has done a great job in terms of challenging us."

Dame Margaret made six recommendations, including the union embarking on a 10-year plan to bring its cultural norms up to the expectation of modern standards.

Bazley expected changes to the rugby culture in Wellington would prompt changes around the country.

"I'm confident that this is going to be done in Wellington, I'm also confident because of the concern across the whole country that the rest of the country won't sit back and let Wellington be the shining star."

Her review said a taskforce should be created to design a new system of standards, policies and documents, including a new code of conduct encompassing off-field behaviour.

The new code of conduct should clearly cover off-field behaviour such as drunkenness violence and inappropriate sexual behaviour, matters which aren't included - to Bazley's surprise.

Her review recommended that the committees and panels set up to develop the changes all have at least two women members and at least one outside expert.

"I have concluded that the WRFU, faced with an extremely difficult situation, managed it as well as could be expected," Bazley said.

She said the union did not have a "robust set of documents" instructing it on what to do in Filipo's case.

Filipo could come back to Wellington Rugby if he stays on the straight and narrow, Potter said.

When Dame Margaret was appointed, Wellington Rugby said her review would look at the union's processes and protocols regarding player recruitment.

It would also consider the management and monitoring of player behaviour, particularly those contracted while still at school, as Filipo was.

Dame Margaret also said there needed to be "zero tolerance" for serious misconduct.

-additional reporting from AAP

- NZ Herald