The Aussie who beat Benazzi to World Rugby's top job on slimmest of margins

YOU MAY NOT have been aware that there was a vote this morning in the five-star Marker Hotel in Dublin to decide on the top job in World Rugby.

These votes aren’t exactly the sexiest part of rugby.

But there was plenty of propositioning and persuading going on in the Marker over the last few days. Intimate conversations over a coffee or a beer swayed things at a crucial time.

Australia’s Brett Robinson proved to be the winning candidate as he squeezed into the position of chairperson, succeeding Bill Beaumont after the Englishman’s eight-year tenure.

There were three runners but the reality is that this was between Robinson and former France international Abdelatif Benazzi, the Morocco-born second who used to love getting stuck into Irish teams in the 1990s.

The third candidate, Italy’s Andrea Rinaldo, never really stood a chance, even if he seemingly picked up Ireland’s support in the first round of voting.

Rinaldo was eliminated swiftly and Robinson just edged out Benazzi 27-25 in the second round of voting. That slim margin shows how much support was behind Benazzi.

As he reiterated this evening at World Rugby’s headquarters on Pembroke Street in Dublin, Robinson is pledging to deal with what he sees as the major financial challenge rugby faces. Having seen Australia’s problems up close, he wants to avoid this challenge from turning into a full-blown, game-wide crisis.

As well as making the sport more financially sustainable, the former Wallabies back row wants to get younger fans fully on board with rugby, break into the US market ahead of the 2031 and 2033 World Cups there, continue to develop women’s rugby, push 7s rugby to a new level, and launch the new biennial Nations Championship launch with success in 2026.

Advertisement

While his narrow win in the voting shows that not everyone was behind him, Robinson stressed this evening that he wants to “unite the game” as he acknowledged that “some people will be disappointed.”

Benazzi gained strong support in recent times, with South Africa and Argentina among those backing his bid.

A huge part of Benazzi’s campaign was a promise to open rugby’s closed door, shaking World Rugby up and allowing the game to spread beyond its traditional power bases.

Benazzi believes that rugby is too Anglo-Saxon and conservative. He wants the likes of Georgia, Portugal, Spain, and Uruguay to genuinely be accepted at the top table. He spoke about growing the game in Africa and Asia.

Benazzi also vowed to change the World Rugby voting system, which currently means that the Six Nations and Rugby Championship countries get 30 of the 52 votes.

But that very system counted against Benazzi as Robinson, backed by the likes od England and New Zealand, edged him out.

The appointment of Robinson – the first chairperson from the Southern Hemisphere – is seen in some quarters as a continuation of the status quo, another of the old boys taking their turn in charge, but Robinson’s message tonight was that he believes the game will grow under his leadership.

He isn’t promising revolution, but Robinson insisted that so-called ‘Tier 2′ nations will only continue to improve with the two-division Nations Championship from 2026 and with promises from the leading countries to play more “crossover” games against the emerging nations in the years in between the new competition.

Robinson has been part of World Rugby for a decade, representing the Aussies, and has been a key figure some of the recent law changes and trials designed to speed the game up and improve the spectacle for fans. He is believed to have strongly driven the new directive on kick escorting being punished, for example. Robinson says fans are tired of “senseless kicking” and long delays during games.

He thinks a better spectacle will bring in new supporters, while Robinson also hopes to see star players embracing their status as promoters of the sport. He recounted how his sons – one of whom recently played for the Australian U18s – told him that to speak to younger fans, he needed to get onto podcasts like the Good, the Bad, and the Rugby, which Robinson appeared on last week. He’s keen to be down with the kids.

Robinson’s ascension to the throne means that England’s Jonathan Webb comes in as vice-chairman of World Rugby, leaving him well positioned to potentially succeed Robinson down the line.

That’s an infuriating reality for the likes of Benazzi and Argentina’s Agustín Pichot, who ran against Beaumont the last time there was a vote for the chairperson’s role in 2020. After losing on a 28-23 count, Pichot resigned from the World Rugby council.

This week, former vice-chair Pichot was pitching for a place on World Rugby’s executive board but missed out on that too.

Pichot’s pledges have been along similar lines to Benazzi’s – taking more power away from the English-speaking unions, ripping up what he perceives as a conservative, guarded approach to the sport, and making it a global game. When he was vice-chair, Pichot was a major driver behind changing the residency rule from three years to five.

While Pichot was overlooked, Ireland’s Su Carty was re-elected to the executive board today, having first joined it last year.

Furthermore, ex-Ireland and Leinster fullback Rob Kearney joins the board as one of two representatives of International Rugby Players, with New Zealand’s Melodie Robinson also appointed.

It’s the first time player representatives have been included at rugby’s top table and it’s certainly a positive move. Kearney vowed to make sure “the collective voice of players is heard.”

While Benazzi and Pichot wallow in frustration tonight, Robinson will be toasting his victory with a few pints of Guinness before he sits down with World Rugby CEO Alan Gilpin to launch his reign tomorrow.

The Aussie has promised evolution over the coming four years but the proof will be in the pudding.