The International Rugby Board (IRB) is the governing body for the sport of rugby union. It was founded in 1886 as the International Rugby Football Board (IRFB) by the unions of Scotland, Wales and Ireland. England refused to join until 1890.^[1][2] The International Rugby Football Board changed its name to the International Rugby Board in 1998.^[3][4] Its headquarters are in Dublin, Ireland.^[5]

The IRB has 98 full members and 20 associate members.^[6] It organises the Rugby World Cup every four years, the sport's most profitable competition.^[7]

History[link]

The minutes of the first formal meeting of the IRFB, from a meeting attended by Lyle and McAlistair of Ireland, Carrick and Gardner of Scotland, Mullock and Lyne of Wales

Until 1885 the laws of rugby football were made by England as the founder nation. However, following a disputed try in an international between Scotland and England in 1884, letters were exchanged in which England claimed that they made the laws, and the try should stand.^[1] Scotland refused to play England in the 1885 Home Nations Championship. Following the dispute, the home unions of Scotland, Ireland and Wales decided to form an international union whose membership would agree on the standard rules of rugby football. The three nations met in Dublin in 1886, though no formal regulations were agreed upon. On 5 December 1887, committee members of the Irish Rugby Union, Scottish Rugby Union and Welsh Rugby Union met in Manchester and wrote up the first four principles of the International Rugby Football Board. England refused to take part in the founding of the IRFB, stating that they should have greater representation, as they had more clubs.^[8] The England Union also refused to accept the IRFB as the recognised law maker of the game.^[8] This led to the IRFB taking the stance of member countries not playing England until they joined, and no games were played against England in 1888 and 1889.^[9] In 1890 England joined the IRFB, gaining six seats while the other unions had two each.^[9] The same year, the IRFB wrote the first international laws of rugby union.^[10]

In 1893, the IRFB was faced with the divide between amateurism and professionalism, which was nicknamed the "Great Schism". Following the introduction of working class men to the game in Northern England, clubs began paying "broken time" payments to players, due to the loss of earnings from playing on a Saturday.^[11] Cumberland County Union also complained of another club using monetary incentives to lure players, leading to the IRFB conducting an enquiry. The IRFB was warned by all the chief clubs in Lancashire and Yorkshire that any punishment would lead to the clubs seceding from the union.^[11] The debate of broken time payments ultimately led to the 22 leading clubs in Yorkshire and Lancashire to form the Northern Rugby Football Union, a sport today known as rugby league football.^[11]

England's seats on the IRFB were reduced from six to four in 1911. The Australian Rugby Union, New Zealand Rugby Union and South African Rugby Union joined the board with one seat each in 1948, with England's seats being reduced to two, the same as the other home nations. The three Southern Hemisphere unions were given a second seat each in 1958.^[12] The French Rugby Federation was admitted in 1978 and the Argentine Rugby Union, Canadian Rugby Union, Italian Rugby Federation and Japan Rugby Football Union were admitted in 1991.^[9]

It is thought that in the late 1950s the IRFB was presented with the ideas of a world championship.^[13] In 1983 the New Zealand Rugby Union and Australian Rugby Union each proposed hosting such a tournament. The following year the board committed to conduct a feasibility study. A year later there was another meeting in Paris, and the Union subsequently voted on the idea. It was the South African Rugby Union's vote that proved to be crucial in setting up a tied vote, as they voted in favour, even though they knew they would be excluded. English and Welsh votes were then changed, and the vote was won 10 to 6.^[13]

Member unions[link]

There are 97 member unions and 20 associate member unions of the IRB, each of which are also affiliated to one of six regional unions. Membership of the IRB is a four-step process:^[14]

1. A Union must apply to become an associate member of its Regional Union
2. After all membership criteria are met, including one year as an associate member, the Union is admitted to the Regional Union as a full member
3. After completion of stages 1 and 2, and two years as a full member of a Regional Union, the Union may then apply to become an Associate member of the IRB. As an associate member, the union can participate in IRB funded tournaments but not the Rugby World Cup
4. Following two years of associate membership of the IRB, the union may then apply to become a Full Member

Regional unions[link]

Six regional associations, which represent each continent, are affiliated with the IRB and help to develop the fifteen-a-side game as well as Rugby 7's across the world. Not all members of the regional associations are members of the IRB. Below is a list of member and associate unions and their regional associations with the year that they joined the IRB. Associate Unions are in italics.

Africa[link]

16 Member Unions, 7 Associate Unions

Asia[link]

14 Member Unions, 8 Associate Unions^{[Asia Unions 1]}

Notes:

Europe[link]

37 Member Unions, 3 Associate Unions

North America[link]

11 Member Unions, 2 Associate Unions

South America[link]

8 Unions are IRB members

Oceania[link]

12 Member Unions

Bands and tiers[link]

The unions of the IRB are classified into four bands reflecting the level of development and the development strategy of the IRB:^[15]

• "High Performance" is composed of 17 unions: the participants of the Six Nations Championship (England, France, Ireland, Italy, Scotland, and Wales), The Rugby Championship (Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Argentina), the Pacific Nations Cup (Fiji, Japan, Samoa, Tonga) and Canada, Romania, and the United States.
• "Performance" is composed of 6 unions:  Georgia,  Namibia,  Portugal,  Russia,  Spain and  Uruguay.
• "Targeted" including  China,  Germany,  India and  Mexico.
• All remaining unions are classified in the "Development" band.

In addition to bands, unions are often referred to using the older tier system:^[16]

• "Tier 1" consists of the participants in the Six Nations Championship and The Rugby Championship
• "Tier 2" consists of the remaining High Performance unions.
• Other unions are classified as "Tier 3".

Governance - Executive Council and Executive Committee[link]

The Executive Council is composed of 28 members. Sixteen of the members come from the eight "foundation unions," each of which has two seats: Scotland, Ireland, Wales, England, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and France. Four unions have one seat each: Argentina, Canada, Italy and Japan. The six regional associations representing Europe, North America and the West Indies, South America, Africa, Asia and Oceania also have one seat each. Additionally, the Chairman and Vice Chairman each have one vote. The Executive Council meets twice a year.

The current chairman of the IRB is Bernard Lapasset, previously president of the French Rugby Federation (FFR). He was elected new IRB chairman following the Executive Council vote which took place on 19 October 2007, and his election became effective on 1 January 2008. Lapasset was re-elected in December 2011 for a second term until 2016.

The Executive Committee has 10 members. It is led by Chairman Bernard Lapasset (France) and Vice Chairman Oregan Hoskins (South Africa).^[17] Mike Miller, CEO of the IRB, also serves on the Executive Committee.

The full membership meets at a General Meeting which is convened every two years. Regional meetings are held at regular intervals.^[5]

Past chairmen[link]

• Vernon Pugh, QC, was chairman of the IRB from 1994 to 2002.
• Syd Millar 2002 to 2007.

Rugby World Cup, 2011[link]

New Zealand hosted the Rugby World Cup in 2011. The rights for hosting this tournament cost NZ $150 million. The Government remains optimistic that this will be a money making venture, yet others have predicted up to a $500 million dollar shortfall, which would largely be funded by taxpayers and ratepayers.^[18] Considerable controversy has arisen over the fees imposed by the IRB on the host nation due to this shortfall. There have already been calls for a complete overhaul of the commercial model of the IRB from the New Zealand Rugby Union, with the NZRU even threatening to boycott the 2015 event if no changes are made, and debate as to whether a subsequent Rugby World Cup without a team as prominent as the All Blacks would be considered legitimate.^[19]

Olympics[link]

The sport of rugby union has been played at the Summer Olympics on four occasions, with the last being in 1924. The winners, and thus the reigning champions, were the U.S. team. Rugby union made one more appearance as a demonstration event but was then removed from the Games. The IRB has most recently been very keen to see it return to the Games and is adamant that the sport (specifically referring to rugby sevens) satisfies every respect of the criteria set out in the Olympic Charter.

The main problem for reintroducing the 15-man game to the Olympics is the 7-day turnaround required by IRB regulations for players to rest between games. Since the Olympics only officially run for 16 days, with only slight expansions allowed to accommodate sports such as football, this effectively makes it impossible to conduct a 15s tournament within the current Olympic schedule. This limitation does not apply to sevens, as games last only 14 minutes (20 in championship finals) instead of the 80 minutes in the 15s game. All of the events in the current IRB Sevens World Series, which feature a minimum of 16 national teams, are conducted within a single weekend.

But in furthering the IRB cause, the International Rugby Board became an International Olympic Committee Recognised International Federation in 1995, marked by a ceremonial signing by President Juan Antonio Samaranch prior to a match between Wales and South Africa in Cardiff.^[20]

The IRB cites rugby union's global participation, with men playing the game in well over 100 countries, with women playing in over 50 as well; the IRB's compliance with the World Anti-Doping Code; and that a rugby sevens tournament could be (and generally is) accommodated in one stadium and is relatively inexpensive to play.^[20] Not only is the sevens game successful in the context of the Sevens World Series and World Cup Sevens, it is also very successfully played in the Commonwealth Games; the sevens tournament at the 2006 Games in Melbourne set all-time attendance records for a sevens tournament.

As a result of this, the IRB applied to the International Olympic Committee for a Sevens tournament to form part of the Olympics. Subsequently, Sevens has been accepted into the Summer Olympic Games and will first be played in 2016 in Rio.

Funding[link]

Japan playing Tonga in the Pacific Five Nations, 2006.

The IRB have recently released £18.6 million of funding over three years for tier two nations Canada, the USA, Japan, Romania, Fiji, Samoa and Tonga. Argentina will also receive additional support to enable it to retain its tier one status. The money, built up from successful World Cups, was released following a report commissioned by the IRB highlighting the growing disparity between tier one and tier two nations. (see IRB statement). This is in addition to the £10–12 million it normally gives out grants and tournament costs. The emphasis is on three areas infrastructure, high performance units and cross border competitions. Three new crossborder competitions involving Tier 2 nations were launched in 2006:

• The Pacific Nations Cup, a competition involving the full national teams of Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, and Japan, plus New Zealand's "senior A" side, the Junior All Blacks and Australia A.
• The Pacific Rugby Cup, a competition similar to the Super Rugby with two franchises each from Fiji, Samoa and Tonga
• The North America 4, a competition similar to the Pacific Rugby Cup, with two franchises each from Canada and the USA

It was announced in April 2006 that tier-3 rugby nations; Georgia, Portugal, Tunisia and Russia were identified as the key investment nations over the next three years. The program is designed to increase the competitiveness of international rugby union.

Effective in 2009, the North America 4 has been replaced by the Americas Rugby Championship, which expands the concept to South America. The competition involves four teams from Canada—provincial teams from British Columbia and Ontario, a regional team representing Atlantic Canada plus Quebec, and a second regional team representing the Prairie Provinces. The field is filled out with the Argentina Jaguars, which absorbed the country's former A national side, and a "USA Select XV", an A national team in all but name.

Laws and regulations[link]

The laws of rugby union are controlled by a standing Laws Committee, which is established by the IRB Council. The current chairman of the committee is Bill Beaumont. The Laws of the Game are formulated by the IRB, and are then circulated by the national Unions. The official laws of the game are written in English, French, Russian and Spanish. There are variations for under-19 and Sevens rugby. There are 21 regulations in total, these regulations range from definitions, eligibility, advertising, disciplinary, anti-doping and a number of other areas. The IRB also approves equipment, which are tested at an IRB Approved Testing House.

Experimental law variations[link]

In 2006, the IRB initiated proposals for variations to the laws, which were formulated and trialled initially at Stellenbosch University in South Africa. Further trials were set down for 2007 and 2008. The law variations aimed to push the balance between defensive and attacking play more in favour of attacking play, and to reduce stoppages for penalties and infringements.

Anti-doping[link]

The IRB is compliant with the WADA code. The IRB anti doping programme includes testing at the under 19 and under 21 level, sevens and senior 15 a side. Testing is a mix of in-competition at IRB organised events, as well as out-of-competition testing, which can occur at any time. In 2003, World Cup year, the IRB member unions undertook approximately 3,000 tests.^[21] "Keep Rugby Clean" is a campaign message run by the IRB Anti-Doping Manager Tim Ricketts. The programme is supported by stars such as Brian O'Driscoll.^[22]

World rankings[link]

IRB World Rankings v t e
Top 25 Rankings as of 19 March 2012[23]
Rank	Change*	Team	Points
1		New Zealand	91.43
2		Australia	87.99
3		South Africa	84.34
4		England	83.62
5		Wales	83.32
6		France	81.91
7		Argentina	80.28
8		Ireland	79.85
9		Tonga	76.63
10		Samoa	75.81
11		Italy	74.17
12		Scotland	73.86
13		Canada	72.92
14		Japan	70.45
15		Georgia	70.26
16		Fiji	68.78
17		United States	65.63
18		Romania	63.81
19		Spain	62.57
20		Namibia	61.24
21		Uruguay	60.47
22		Russia	60.12
23		Chile	59.52
24		Belgium	58.88
25		Portugal	57.75
*Change from the previous week

The IRB publishes and maintains the World Rankings of the men's national rugby union teams. The concept was launched in October 2003, at the start of that year's world cup in Australia. The rankings are calculated using a Points Exchange system, whereby nations take points off each other based on a match result. Several years of research went into developing the rankings system, using an extensive database of international matches that date back to 1871.

The system's reliability is assessed in a number of objective ways, which includes predictions of current strength and responds to changes in form. The system takes into account home advantage, in that the home nation is treated as though it has an extra three rating points, effectively handicapping them, as they will gain less ranking points for a win, and lose more should they lose. In the case of a freak result, there is a maximum number of movements on the ranking that any nation can gain from one match.

If a nation does not play for a number of years they are considered dormant, and excluded from the rankings, upon returning, picking up from where they were excluded. If a nation is to merge or split, the highest rating of any of the rankings is inherited.

Currently all capped international matches are equally weighted, whether or not they take place within a competition or are played as tests; the sole exception to this is the World Cup final tournament.

Recognitions and awards[link]

The IRB Awards were introduced in 2001, to honour outstanding achievements in rugby union. Prior to 2009, all of the awards were announced at an annual ceremony; the most recent such ceremony was held in London on 23 November 2008.

However, as a response to the late-2000s economic crisis, the annual ceremony will only see the International Player, Team, and Coach of the Year Awards presented in 2009 and 2010; all other awards will be presented at different times throughout the year. The IRB currently plans to reinstitute the single year-end ceremony after the 2011 Rugby World Cup.^[24]

The current awards are:

• IRB International Player of the Year
• IRB Team of the Year
• IRB Coach of the Year
• IRB Sevens Team of the Year
• IRB Sevens Player of the Year
• IRB Junior Player of the Year
• IRB Women's Personality of the Year
• IRB Referee Award for Distinguished Service
• Vernon Pugh Award for Distinguished Service
• IRB Development Award
• Spirit of Rugby Award

At the year-end ceremony, the International Rugby Players' Association also hands out the following awards:

• IRPA Try of the Year
• IRPA Special Merit Award

In the past, the IRB has also awarded:

• IRB International U21 Player of the Year
• IRB Under 19 Player of the Year
• IRB Chairman's Award

The awards that recognise achievements in the preceding 12 months tend to be won by that season's most successful nation(s): France in 2002, England in 2003, South Africa in 2004, New Zealand in 2005, South Africa again in 2007. For those award categories that have nominees, a shortlist is drawn up by an independent panel of judges, who are all former internationals. The panel then reconvenes to choose a winner. The current judges are Jonathan Davies, Will Greenwood, Gavin Hastings, Michael Jones, Dan Lyle, Federico Méndez, Francois Pienaar and past Player of the Year winners Fabien Galthié and Keith Wood, with John Eales as convenor. The judges have a total of over 500 caps between them.

In 2006 an IRB Hall of Fame was established to chronicle the achievements and special contribution of the sport's players, coaches, administrators, match officials, institutions and other individuals. The Hall of Fame was inaugurated at the 2006 IRB Awards, when William Webb Ellis and Rugby School were named as the first two inductees. Hall of Fame inductees in 2007 were Pierre de Coubertin, Danie Craven, John Eales, Gareth Edwards and Wilson Whineray. The 2008 inductees were the 1888–89 New Zealand Native team and its organiser Joe Warbrick, Jack Kyle, Melrose RFC and Ned Haig (for their roles in the invention of rugby sevens), Hugo Porta, and Philippe Sella.

See also[link]

Rugby union portal

• Syd Millar
• Mark Egan

References[link]

External links[link]

• International Rugby Board – official website
• IRB The Laws of rugby union
• IRB World Rankings

This article is an orphan, as few or no other articles link to it. Please introduce links to this page from related articles; suggestions may be available. (January 2012)

Brett Gosper (born 21 June 1959 in Melbourne, Australia) is an Advertising Executive and former Rugby Union Player. Gosper was educated at Scotch College, Melbourne and Monash University; Faculties of Law and Economics.

Advertising career[link]

Ogilvy & Mather[link]

In 1981, Gosper began his advertising career as graduate trainee with Ogilvy & Mather in Melbourne and Brisbane, Australia. On being offered a place with the Racing Club rugby team in Paris he transferred to Ogilvy & Mather Paris in 1982 where he would become Group Account Director in 1986.

BDDP (TBWA)[link]

In 1989 Gosper left Ogilvy & Mather to go on to become Deputy Managing Director of France's 3rd largest agency BDDP Paris (now TBWA) in 1992.While at BDDP Gosper led a number of international account wins including TAG Heuer watches for whom he wrote the concept of their first world wide campaign; "Don't Crack Under Pressure". Gosper led the successful pitch for BMW in Germany in 1993 which led to him spending a year in Germany launching the BDDP Frankfurt office.^[1]

Euro RSCG Wnek Gosper[link]

In 1994 Gosper was recruited by Havas to relaunch Euro RSCG's struggling entities in London as Chief Executive Officer of newly branded Euro RSCG Wnek Gosper. For almost a decade Gosper led the agency on an industry acclaimed run of new business acquisition that included Abbey National, Argos, Bass Brewery, Cadbury, Coca-Cola's Atlanta roster, Commission for Racial Equality,Credit Suisse, Evian, Häagen-Dazs, Intel, Microsoft, Philips (Gosper was the author of the world-wide brand slogan "Let's Make Things Better"), Reckitt Benckiser and The Independent.

The rise of Euro RSCG Wnek Gosper to number one in the Campaign Magazine's Business Performance League ensured the agency a Top 10 London Agency Ranking and several years as finalist in Ad Age's International Agency of the Year.^[2]

McCann Erickson NY[link]

In 2003, Gosper moved to New York and McCann Erickson as CEO of their flagship New York office. ^[3]

TBWA New York Group[link]

In 2004, Gosper was appointed President of TBWA New York Group (comprising TBWA\Chiat\Day New York, Tequila New York, and Brand Architecture International). Gosper led the successful pitch for the newly merged Sprint-Nextel business. With billings of $800 million, it was the biggest marketing services pitch that year in the USA.^[4][5][6]

McCann Erickson USA[link]

In 2005, McCann Erickson re-hired Gosper as President of McCann Erickson USA. During the time of Gosper's leadership at McCann, the agency's new business wins included Goodyear, Staples, Smith Barney, Verizon, US Army, Viagra, Lunesta, Weight Watchers, USA Today.^[7][8]

McCann Erickson Europe[link]

Back in London since 2007, Gosper was most recently Chief Executive Officer of McCann Erickson Europe, Middle East and Africa, until March 2011. Gosper was also a member of the McCann Worldgroup Executive Committee, and Board Executive responsible for European based global accounts including L'Oreal, Nestle, Unilever, Sony Ericsson, Inter-Continental Hotels Group.^[9][10]

Rugby career[link]

Early club career in Australia[link]

Gosper begun his First Grade rugby career in Melbourne in 1978 with the Melbourne Rugby Union Football Club. In 1979 at the age of 20, Gosper was named Captain.

In 1980, he represented the State of Victoria against the New Zealand All Blacks.

Gosper moved to Brisbane in 1981 where he joined GPS Old Boys and the Queensland Rugby Union squad.

Racing Club de France (1981-1990)[link]

Gosper left Australia aged 22 when recruited by France’s oldest rugby club, the Racing Club de France (Now Racing Metro 92) in Paris, where he played from 1981 to 1990. The team was also famous at the time for wearing pink bow ties in the 1987 and 1990 finals of the French Championship.

International career[link]

Gosper played trials for the Australia national rugby union team tours in 1979 (Argentina) and 1981 (United Kingdom). He represented the Australian Under 21 Rugby Union team in 1980, versus New Zealand at the Sydney Cricket Ground.^[11][12]

Gosper represented a French selection ("Séléction Du Manoir") against British Barbarian F.C. in 1982 at the Parc des Princes.

Gosper was also selected by the French Barbarian Rugby Club to play against the touring All Blacks at La Rochelle in 1986. Gosper was also captain of the Italian side at the Monaco Sevens in 1986 at the Stade Louis II.^[13]

Rugby Honours[link]

Racing Club de France: Best Club Player, 1987.

Melbourne Rugby Football Club: Best Club Player, 1978-1979-1980.

Personal life[link]

Gosper is the son of International Olympic Committee member and former Vice President, Kevan Gosper and brother of Dean Gosper who is a member of the Executive Board of the International Ski Federation. Gosper is married with 3 Children.^[14]

References[link]

James Stephen "Steve" Griffiths (23 February 1914 – 10 June 1998) was an English footballer who played for Halifax Town, Aldershot, Barnsley and York City in the Football League.

Career[link]

Born in Stairfoot, South Yorkshire, Griffiths played for Ardsley Athletic, Barnsley Main and Thurnscoe Victoria before signing for Chesterfield of the Football League in October 1934.^[2] After failing to make any league appearances for Chesterfield, he joined Halifax Town in July 1937.^[1] After making 75 appearances and scoring 14 goals in the league,^[1] Everton tried to sign him, but he eventually joined Portsmouth for a fee of £750 in June 1939.^[2] Due to the outbreak of the Second World War, he was unable to play for them in the First Division, although he was in the team that lost 2–0 to Brentford in the 1942 War Cup Final.^[2] He joined Aldershot in June 1946, making 42 appearances and scoring nine goals in the league in the 1946–47 season,^[1] before signing for Barnsley for a fee of £300 in July 1947.^[2] After making 65 appearances and scoring 29 goals in the league, he joined York City in June 1951.^[1] He was captain for two seasons, making 78 appearances and scoring 12 goals, before retiring in 1953 after being unsuccessful in his application for the role of manager at York.^[2]

Personal life[link]

During the war, Griffiths served on HMS Adamant and played football for the English Combined Services team.^[2] He died on 10 June 1998 at the age of 84.^[3] He was outlived by his wife Dorothy, who died in 2011 at the age of 87 following a fall at a Wombwell nursing home.^[4] They had a daughter, Jean.^[4]

References[link]