Rugby shenanigans a worldwide malaise

Defeated candidate Agustin Pichot needs to tell us what he knows

Last week I urged the new chairman of Rugby Australia, Hamish McLennan, to commit to a road map for constitutional change. This, above all else, must be a first priority.

The constitution, though, can only be changed if voting members decide that is what they want.

It is impossible to understand why voting members still remain unwilling to challenge anything. McLennan must lead on this immediately.

As things stand, the rugby family seem to have surrendered everything to a nominations committee. Mates are hand-picked.

There will be two director vacancies shortly. Is the board going to choose the replacements? Here we go again.

We don’t need an “interim” CEO. We don’t need decisions taken, in the short term, by someone who won’t be here in the long term.

The interim CEO Rob Clarke was reported at the beginning of the week to have said the exit of three Queensland players, breaking their contracts, won’t set a precedent for other Australian players.

By week’s end, reports surfaced that up to 19 players may be seeking to leave the Melbourne Rebels. What does that say for judgment and knowing what is going on?

Of course, broadcast deals are critical. Without them there is no money. But unless the constitution changes to give the rugby family a say, we face the disturbing truth that we will simply be fed more of the same.

Only a fool would argue that rugby, here and abroad, is not in administrative disarray.

The Prince is a 16th-century political treatise by the Italian diplomat and political theorist Niccolo Machiavelli.

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The general theme of The Prince suggests that the aims of leaders, such as glory and survival, can justify the use of immoral means to achieve those ends.

The recently defeated candidate for the chairmanship of World Rugby, Agustin Pichot, claims Bill Beaumont and his running partner, Bernard Laporte, employed Machiavellian tactics to secure power at the recent elections.

The feisty former Puma captain Pichot lost to the incumbent, Beaumont, and has since walked away from World Rugby claiming he was betrayed.

Speaking on Argentine television recently, Pichot lambasted Rugby Africa and Samoa Rugby for switching allegiances at the 11th hour and said he suspects there were shady deals done that resulted in the late crossover of votes.

Pichot claims: “I was betrayed in the last days before the election ... favours were made on the edge of ethics ... on our side you will not find any type of negotiation.”

If Pichot is right and dirty deals were done, World Rugby would not be the first international sports governing body to act improperly.

You will remember the downfall of IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch after revelations concerning the bidding process for the Salt Lake City 2002 Winter Olympics.

It turned out that officials from bidding cities had been lavishing IOC members, and their families, with payments, gifts and luxurious hospitality, as well as scholarships, with the aim of buying their votes.

What promises, if any, were made to Rugby Africa and Samoa Rugby by Beaumont and/or Laporte?

We need Pichot to tell us what he knows.

On another matter it was widely suspected that Laporte convinced a number of World Rugby Council members to vote for France to host the 2023 Rugby World Cup, ignoring the recommendation of the World Rugby Executive Committee who supported the South African bid.

The decision ruffled feathers in South Africa and at World Rugby. The Rugby Africa vote was the key to France winning the bid.

It’s hard to say why World Rugby Council members would ignore the advice of a World Rugby Executive Committee recommendation. What do you think?

Again, if Pichot has any information on the France issue, it is his obligation to speak out because he was still inside the World Rugby tent, as vice-president, when France won the 2023 Rugby World Cup bid. We must remember, too, it was Laporte who nominated the Fijian Francis Keane to a spot on World Rugby’s Executive Committee.

When Keane was revealed, by the world’s press, to be a convicted killer, World Rugby sheepishly asked him to resign.

Are World Rugby, under the leadership of Beaumont and Laporte, happy to embrace Machiavellian behaviour?

Some would say being ruthless to gain and stay in power is just part of being a leader.

Perhaps self-preservation is just one of the challenges of leadership.

Six-star American General Joseph Stilwell had an interesting take on the challenges of leadership.

He coined the expression “the higher a monkey climbs up the pole, the more you see of its behind”.

Stilwell is nicknamed “Vinegar Joe” because of his caustic personality.

His troops were forced out of Burma by the Japanese in 1942, but, in 1943, he returned and drove the Japanese out, reopening the Burma Road.

“Vinegar Joe” was, of course, referring to the scrutiny leaders are put under.

Most of us would disagree with the Machiavellian notion that the end always justifies the means.

The chairman of World Ruby, Beaumont, should be listening to what was outlined in General Stilwell’s leadership lesson.

Pichot is a potential loose cannon. He will know if there are any dirty secrets or backhanders that took place for France to win the 2023 Rugby World Cup bid.

It is Pichot’s decision how he plays his cards. If Pichot fights a Che Guevara-type revolutionary battle with Beaumont, we can all expect to see more of Bill’s rather large derriere as he sits on top of his World Rugby pole.

It may not be a pretty sight, but does Pichot have enough evidence, along with the inclination, to bring Beaumont unstuck? We will have to wait and see.

History has not been kind to many of our leading sports administrators because big money, sport and Machiavellian deeds seem to go hand-in-hand.