Australia’s Brett Robinson became the first chairman of World Rugby from the southern hemisphere after edging French rival Abdelatif Benazzi in a vote on Thursday.
The 54-year-old former Wallabies flanker succeeds England’s Bill Beaumont who steps down after eight years.
Robinson obtained 27 votes with Benazzi receiving 25 in the second round of World Rugby Council voting. Italy’s Andrea Rinaldo bowed out in the first round with nine votes.
“It is an immense privilege and honour to have been elected World Rugby Chair by my Council colleagues today,” said Robinson, who has a four-year term with the option to run for a second.
“During the course of the process, I have had many conversations with my colleagues around the world and am heartened by our shared ambition to continue to build on the strength of our game.”
The next men’s Rugby World Cup takes place in Australia in 2027 and will be the first to have 24 teams.
Robinson, a doctor specialising in orthopaedics, said he had five main themes which he wanted to deliver on.
These include financial sustainability “across all member unions amid a rising cost base and wage inflation” and “fan and player growth through investment in player safety, law reform and innovation”.
“Today, I reiterate my commitment as Chair to do so, to harness the abundant passion in our game and to lead for all,” he said.
Robinson has since retiring as a player also enjoyed a spell in business and has said the finances of World Rugby, with so much to be invested in various programmes over the next few years, were “creaking”.
With this in mind he has made the biennial Nations Championship a priority to enhance rugby income.
He was bitterly disappointed when the idea was rejected in 2019 but it is slated to have its inaugural outing in 2026.
There will be a northern pool (made up of the Six Nations) and a southern pool, with Japan and Fiji expected to join the four existing Rugby Championship nations —- South Africa, New Zealand, Australia and Argentina.
There is a second Division of a dozen countries with promotion and relegation as of 2030.
‘Existential threat’
Qatar had been keen to host it but they will have to wait although Robinson is keen to bring them in at some stage.
Twickenham, according to Robinson, will host the first Nations Championship final.
“It was one of the most disappointing moments for me that we missed that opportunity (with the Nations Championship),” he told The Times in August.
“There were forces at play that meant at the time it wasn’t meant to be.
“The great thing is it has come around again. I don’t want to see us miss it again — because we can’t afford to.”
Robinson has also been a proponent of speeding up the game, from time limits on setting scrums and line-outs to the controversial 20 minute red card to make it more spectator friendly.
“Contest for possession is still primary to our thinking,” he told The Times.
“But we have to be mindful of the existential threat. That means we have to listen and adapt and change.
“That is something we shouldn’t be frightened of and something we should embrace.”
Player welfare is perhaps to many — not least to parents debating whether to allow their children to play rugby — the greatest priority.
The legal case brought by former players against World Rugby, England’s Rugby Football Union and the Welsh Rugby Union is pending.
However, Robinson, who has been a research investigator in a concussion study involving the Queensland Brain Institute, told New Zealand newspaper The Post that World Rugby will invest £40 million ($51 million) in player welfare in the next few years.
That will include paying for instrumented mouthguards in every competition in the world.
