• Beaumont warns of potential ‘leadership vacuum’
• Bill Sweeney faces no confidence vote on 27 March

The Rugby Football Union’s interim chairman Bill Beaumont has come out fighting on behalf of the embattled chief executive, Bill Sweeney, writing a letter to urge the ­governing body’s members to vote against a ­resolution to remove Sweeney and taking aim at the “personal attack on one individual”.

Beaumont, who was appointed on a temporary basis following the resignation of Tom Ilube, has warned – in a letter on behalf of the RFU’s board and seen by the Guardian – of the risk of “sending the union into paralysis and creating a leadership vacuum”.