SA Rugby ponders world leadership
● SA Rugby is yet to decide who they will back in the David vs Goliath arm wrestle for control of World Rugby.
Electronic ballots to be cast this month will decide if incumbent chairperson Bill Beaumont will prevail over his challenger Agustin Pichot with the result expected to be announced on May 12.
SA Rugby’s 12-member board is yet to convene to discuss the matter, but they will be under pressure from their Sanzaar alliance partners to throw their weight behind Argentine Pichot, who is campaigning on a ticket to disrupt the world order.
Introduce a global season
SA Rugby’s World Rugby council members Mark Alexander, Jurie Roux and Vanessa Doble are yet to be mandated, but they will be aware that Europe has monopolised the chair in rugby’s highest office since elections were introduced in 1996.
Welshman Vernon Pugh became the International Rugby Board’s first elected chairperson, followed by Irishman Syd Millar (2003-2007), France’s Bernard Lapasset (2008-2016) and Beaumont from 2016. SA’s Silas Nkanunu was vice-president during Millar’s stint, and Oregan Hoskins did the same under Lapasset.
Some of the content in Pichot’s manifesto that will most likely resonate with SA Rugby include his intentions to introduce a global season which will facilitate greater alignment between the hemispheres.
They may also find Pichot’s objective of overhauling World Rugby’s governance structures appealing. It seeks to redress the imbalance that sees Europe hold 22 of the 51 votes on the members’ council.
World Rugby’s council elects its chairperson and vice-chairperson with 28 council members having 1-3 votes depending on their historical seniority.
The federations with three votes are Australia, Argentina, England, France, Ireland, Italy, New Zealand, Scotland, SA and Wales.
Japan holds two votes as do the six regional entities Asia Rugby, Oceania Rugby, Rugby Africa, Rugby Europe, Rugby North America and Sudamérica Rugby. The members with one vote are Canada, Georgia, Fiji,
Romania, Samoa, Uruguay and the US.
A more equitable split will also help bridge the divide between the so called tier one and tier two nations.
Though Pichot is up against it, one former insider familiar with the machinations of World Rugby isn’t ruling out a surprise, saying: “The game needs another revolution like it had in 1996 (when the game went professional).
“Pichot can deliver it because he is a maverick. If he can get some of rugby’s new equity stakeholders like CVC Capital partners on board, who knows what’s possible.”
The two candidates cannot be more contrasting. Beaumont, a former England and British and Irish Lions lock and captain [to SA in 1980], is seen as a traditionalist and part of the old order.
He has France’s Bernard Laporte, running as vice-chairperson, in his camp.