Whoever succeeds Bill Beaumont at World Rugby will have bulging in-tray with 20-minute red card fallout on agenda

There are plenty of major rugby union contests happening this month but perhaps the most far-reaching is taking place in Dublinon Thursday. World Rugby’s assembled delegates will vote in a new chair and the outcome is not yet the foregone conclusion so often served up on these occasions.

The race to succeed the retiring Bill Beaumont is a three-way one between Australia’s Brett Robinson, France’s Abdelatif Benazzi and Italy’s Andrea Rinaldo, with Robinson regarded as the frontrunner. The winner needs 27 votes and sources suggest it is not inconceivable that, after one first-round runner is eliminated, Benazzi could gain some game-altering last-minute extra backers.