A victory for the South, a setback for the North. An Australian success, a French failure. In a few words, the summary of the election for the presidency of World Rugby, held on Thursday, November 14 in Dublin, the headquarters of the international body.
As expected since the forced withdrawal of Scotland's John Jeffrey, Australian Brett Robinson (pictured above, left, with Bill Beaumont) has swept the board. He becomes the first World Rugby chairman from a hemisphere country. Anything but an aberration in a sport where Australia, New Zealand and South Africa have won nine of the ten editions of the men's Rugby World Cup.
Uncertain until the last moment, the victory of the former international third row was decided by very little. Two votes. But they were enough to secure him a first four-year term, renewable once. Brett Robinson, 54, succeeds the Englishman Bill Beaumont, in place since 2016.
Three men presented themselves to the voters: Brett Robinson, the Frenchman Abdelatif Benazzi, and the Italian Andrea Rinaldo. As expected, the first round eliminated the Italian candidate. With only nine votes, he left the debates. Brett Robinson obtained 22 votes, against 21 for Abdelatif Benazzi, the least precocious of the three candidates to announce his ambition, having only entered the campaign last September.
Clearly, the transfer of votes between the two rounds did not benefit the Frenchman, former captain of the French XV. Brett Robinson finally won with 27 votes, against 25 for Abdelatif Benazzi.
For France, the blow is harsh. It comes less than a week after another electoral defeat, that of Christian Dullin, soundly beaten by the Dutchman Janhein Pieterse for the presidency of Rugby Europe (46 votes to 19).
After chairing the IRB, formerly known as World Rugby, with Bernard Lapasset between 2008 and 2016, France is being left out. Worse still: it will not have a single member on the body's new executive committee.
With Brett Robinson's victory, World Rugby has opted for a form of continuity. The former international – 16 caps in the 90s – had been on the executive committee since 2016, after having been a member of the Rugby Australia board for nine years.
His playing career was quickly cut short to pursue his medical studies, in Brisbane and then at Oxford, Brett Robinson worked for a long time as a surgeon, before launching into the world of insurance. He currently holds the position of general manager of the largest private group of retirement villages in Australia.
Continuity, then. But the new strongman of world rugby does not intend to remain in the footsteps of the Englishman Bill Beaumont for too long. His priority? It is twofold: player safety and a more attractive game.
« We love our sport, we want it to be safe and we want to do everything we can to make sure young boys and girls, mothers and fathers, feel safe playing this great sport because it has so much more to offer", he explained in a press conference.
Having worked extensively during his years as a doctor on concussions, the new World Rugby chairman knows the subject inside out. His idea: to use technological data to better understand how often elite players should play and train.
The Australian also talked business. "The number one issue we face, not necessarily within World Rugby, but within the world of rugby, is the financial sustainability of our member countries", explained Brett Robinson on Thursday in Dublin, after his election.
When asked about the salaries of professional players, which are often very high in Europe, he cautiously sidestepped the issue, simply replying that their inflation was " one of the economic challenges facing rugby."
