Rugby Australia chair Hamish McLennan, in an act not entirely out of character, has thrown the cat among the pigeons.
World Rugby will hold elections next year and the top two positions, chair and vice-chair, will be up for grabs. Most of those who will eventually run for those positions were hoping to keep the coop quiet.
In expressing his interest in the latter position, McLennan has set off frenzied flutter.
World Rugby chair Bill Beaumont will step down after a two-term stint and could be replaced by John Jeffrey, who will next month take the vice-chair’s seat vacated by Bernard Laporte, who had to resign because of a corruption conviction in his native France.
Jeffrey was the only nomination when submissions for that position closed last month.
McLennan, who chairs several large companies on the Australian stock exchange, revealed his candidacy but in the process also drew attention to the names of South Africa’s Mark Alexander and Argentina’s Agustin Pichot.
“Gus or Mark might have a crack, somebody from New Zealand might have a crack, so who knows the lay of the land?” McLennan told The Sydney Morning Herald.
NZ Rugby Union CEO Mark Robinson is also considered a candidate for the position.
McLennan believes it is the turn of a southern hemisphere candidate to take the second highest seat at World Rugby next year.
“It may not be me, but I do believe the south deserves a stronger voice at the table, and we’re certainly looking to innovate around law variations and at a Super Rugby level, including how we promote the game,” he drew attention to himself.
Jeffrey was nominated by the Scottish Rugby Union and it was seconded by the South African Rugby Union. Alexander’s support of Jeffrey’s candidacy to take the vice-chair’s seat next week is a move some view as prelude to having his name on the Scot’s ticket next year.
I have not considered that yet as my priorities are first to stabilise SA Rugby as we’re still feeling the effects of the pandemic and focus on the RWC.
— Mark Alexander, SA Rugby president
Alexander was coy when asked to comment on the topic. “I have not considered that yet as my priorities are first to stabilise SA Rugby as we’re still feeling the effects of the pandemic and focus on the RWC.”
If he does decide to run he will have to say carefully about whose engine he’s going to hitch his caboose. Jeffrey, a tough as teak former Scotland flanker is very much seen as part of rugby’s establishment and has served on committees with an on-field focus, most recently the Sevens high-performance committee.
Pichot, of course, cannot be ignored. He was seen as a young maverick when he opposed Beaumont in 2020. Armed with the promise of sweeping reform, the former Los Pumas scrumhalf came desperately close to unseating the former lock for the top job.
It is unlikely his support base has dramatically eroded.
How Alexander, should he opt to run, navigates World Rugby’s highly politicised waters, remains to be seen. Traditionally the so-called home unions, England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales tend to vote en bloc, while France and Italy through their Six Nations association are aware of the expectation for them to protect interests north of the Mediterranean.
South Africa, New Zealand, Australia and Argentina flexed their muscle in the south, but that alliance is tenuous after SA Rugby’s enforced exit from Super Rugby.
They have set their sights north, which potentially disturbs the balance of power in the sport.
One way or the other, a man from the south looks likely to occupy the second seat at World Rugby, but how they get there is for now opaque.
South Africa, in recent times, doesn’t have a strong association with the game’s top seats.
Oregan Hoskins was vice-chair from 2012 to 2016, while Silas Nkanunu was IRB (forerunner to World Rugby) vice-president for a few weeks in 2003.
The last time the country held the rugby controlling body’s top seat was when professor Fritz Eloff was at the helm in 1989 and 1990.
Before him Dr Danie Craven was an enduring force in that organisation, occupying the top seat on several occasions.
Given how the game’s contemporary battle lines are drawn, South Africa may continue to find the top seats elusive.
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