Asia Rugby supports Pichot

Asia Rugby is supporting challenger Agustín Pichot to become the next Chairman of World Rugby.

Asia Rugby reports that Asia Rugby President, Qais Abdulla Al Dhalai announced yesterday at the close of voting to determine Asia’s vote that 24 voted for Agustin Pichot while 2 voted for Bill Beaumont with 2 abstentions.

Dhalai says that it is unfortunate that a sport which aspires to become a global game in Asia counts for only 2 votes of the total of 51 votes on the World Rugby governance and voting system.

He says Asia has already hosted the most successful Rugby World Cup in Japan last year and it is currently home to 3 legs of HSBC World Sevens Series led firmly by the legendary Hong Kong 7s, the prestigious Dubai 7s and most recently the inspired Singapore 7s.

He adds he believes that Pichot has the vision to build sustainable competition pathway that will enable greater playing performance from Asia and all regions including emerging unions.

The vote for the chairmanship and the executive committee will take place later today and the announcement will be made on May 12th.

Fiji has one vote and they have seconded France’s nomination for Sir Bill Beaumont.

Pichot needs 26 votes to become the Chairman of World Rugby.

There are 51 votes in total.

Reports have come in that Pichot has the backing of South Africa, New Zealand, Australia and Argentina while Sir Bill Beaumont has the backing of Six Nations teams.

[Source:Asia Rugby]