Newly-elected World Rugby boss Brett Robinson vows to deal with sport’s ‘monetary disaster’, promote ladies’s sport and cease time-wasting – after first southern hemisphere chairman sees off rivals to succeed Sir Invoice Beaumont

World Rugby’s new chairman, Brett Robinson, has outlined his pressing mission to deal with the game’s acute monetary disaster, after narrowly successful the vote to succeed Sir Invoice Beaumont.

The previous Australia flanker turned the primary elected figurehead of the worldwide governing physique from the southern hemisphere, by edging out ex-France captain Abdelatif Benazzi 27-25 within the second spherical of voting. 

As anticipated, it had turn out to be a two-horse race when the Italian candidate, Andrea Rinaldo, was eradicated after gaining simply 9 votes within the first spherical, in comparison with 22 for Robinson and 21 for Benazzi.

Having come by the tense, tight poll at a luxurious resort right here within the Irish capital, the 54-year-old victor spoke about his delight and urgent priorities. 

‘It is a terrific privilege and honour to be elected to chair World Rugby,’ mentioned Robinson. ‘I used to be honoured to be put up, however to have the sport come and help me is fabulous.

‘Work begins immediately. There are a listing of issues that (World Rugby’s) Council need from me, having elected me, and I’ve acquired to start out these in some element. 

Robinson (second-right) will substitute outgoing Sir Invoice Beaumont (second-left) within the position

The end result was a disappointment for former French star Abdelatif Benazzi who anticipated to win

‘I used to be very clear main into the elections that the monetary sustainability of our member unions is at disaster level, so we’ve to seek out methods, collectively, to take care of that. I used to be actually clear about the necessity to develop the sport, whereas guaranteeing our core markets are in a superb place.

‘I used to be clear concerning the competitions that matter to us – the Nations Championship getting off the bottom, the ladies’s sport persevering with to develop, and our platform across the Sevens being reset after the Olympics. I used to be additionally actually clear about listening to our followers.

‘There may be not sufficient ball in play, an excessive amount of mindless kicking, and we’re not selling groups to assault. Lastly, World Rugby as an organisation has been within the skilled period for about 30 years. 

‘Now, we have a lot to consider as an organisation, what our priorities are, and the way we will be match, lean, and able to ship.’

The notion going into the election was that Robinson was a established order candidate whereas Benazzi was extra centered on overseeing an period of world growth. 

Requested if his purpose was to bolster the sport’s core unions and nations quite than focusing on new markets, Robinson added: ‘We have completed some nice work previously few months bringing our high unions collectively.

‘There are income and value levers we are able to play with. We did a workshop 4 weeks in the past, and final evening the CEOs and chairs of the most important unions got here collectively as a follow-on from that. We’re into some element about these issues now.’

This was not solely a passable consequence for Australia, it additionally represented an ideal end result for the RFU, who’ve been capable of preserve English affect on the high of World Rugby. 

Robinson drew consideration to the Rugby Sevens platform being ‘reset’ after the Olympics

He additionally vowed to help the ladies’s sport because it ‘continued to develop’ in recognition

The result’s excellent news for the RFU because it maintains English affect on the high of rugby after Beaumont’s exit

Former England full-back Jonathan Webb will function vice-chairman after being elected to the manager board, after the RFU strongly and overtly backed Robinson’s marketing campaign.

Benazzi had been assured of victory within the chairman election and as he hurried to depart the resort after his agonising defeat, he lamented the choice by Rugby Africa to forged their two votes in favour of Robinson. 

The Morocco-born candidate had evidently anticipated to be supported by the area whose main nation, South Africa, had been staunchly supportive of Benazzi’s bid for the lead position.

Shortly after the voting concluded, the president of Rugby Africa, Herbert Mensah – a Ghanaian businessman and sports activities administrator – could possibly be seen posing for selfies with Robinson. It emerged that Mensah had been voted on to the brand new government board.

One other man hoping to achieve a kind of coveted seats on the high desk was former Argentina captain Agustin Pichot, who had narrowly misplaced the earlier chairman election to Beaumont in 2020. Nonetheless, the favored Pumas legend missed out, as did the president of Rugby South America, Sebastian Pineyrua.