Lapasset set for IRB victory over Beaumont
The chairmanship of the International Rugby Board will be decided in Los Angeles on Monday with Bernard Lapasset set to survive a challenge from his vice-chairman, Bill Beaumont. Word from LA on Sunday was that Beaumont had asked for a meeting with Lapasset, having acknowledged that a projected 14-12 vote against him was not going to be turned, despite intense lobbying.
The IRB has not wasted money pampering its council members. They are holed up at an LA airport hotel and will hold the vote there, nearly two months after a first attempt to elect a chairman for the next four years failed acrimoniously. Time has not healed wounds which opened then. Even though the hemispheres have split, with the home unions backed by New Zealand in their attempt to get Beaumont elected and Australia and South Africa joined with France and Italy in Lapasset's corner, threats are still being made on north-south lines.
South Africa and Australia have been warned that if Beaumont is not elected, England and Wales will no longer arrange lucrative fourth internationals with them in the European autumn – an empty threat, given that contracts are in place. South Africa were offered the vice-chairman's position if they dropped Lapasset but the offer was not taken up. The Frenchman is canvassing on a reformer's mandate, agreeing to an independent review of the way the IRB is run, a call that Beaumont has joined. "Reform under Bernard will occur because the majority of members want it," said one delegate. "The world of rugby needs radical change. I think Bill has seen the inevitable and is trying to cut a deal."
Got Carter
New Zealand's women were in mourning over the weekend, after Dan Carter married his long-term girlfriend, Honor Dillon, a former New Zealand hockey international, on the South Island. It is the second time in a few months that the golden boy has plunged his nation into despair, his groin injury having threatened to derail the All Blacks' World Cup dream. As then, it all ended happily. The event was shrouded in secrecy – a women's magazine had paid for the rights – but it involved an aerobatics display, Graham Henry, Richie McCaw (on crutches), several All Blacks, a wine lodge and a lake. No doubt the produce was drunk in moderation.
French love special Brew
What is it about Perpignan and the Welsh? James Hook joined in the summer, the lock Luke Charteris looks like moving south at the end of the season and the Catalans are now casting their eyes on the winger Aled Brew. Like Charteris, Brew is out of contract at the Newport Gwent Dragons and the 25-year-old apparently caught the eye when Perpignan were beaten at Rodney Parade last month.
Express derailed
Philippe Saint-André might be ruing his decision to confirm the new French coaching team last week, when he announced that Patrice Lagisquet will look after the backs. The former Bayonne Express is back at Biarritz, three seasons after ceasing to be their director of rugby, and the Basques are bottom of the Top 14. Europe suddenly looks difficult as well after a 30-26 loss in Treviso on Saturday. A day earlier Lagisquet was suitably coy about the arrangement which will allow him to work with Biarritz until the summer. "I didn't want to talk about it before because the situation at BO is serious and is preoccupying my mind." It shows.
Statistics of the weekend
13 The number of successive matches the Scarlets have lost to Munster, who won in West Wales on Saturday. The teams meet again in Limerick this weekend.
91 Heineken Cup appearances made by Peter Stringer – 90 for Munster and one, on Saturday, for Saracens. Sarries have played only 35 times in the Heineken Cup.
Performance of the week
Louis Picamoles, Toulouse v Harlequins at The Stoop
If only to reflect a top performer in a French pack who put this season's English Heineken Cup challenge into rather grim perspective.
