Gus Pichot calls for more Formula 1-like ‘cliffhangers’ in rugby to save it from ‘worst place’
World Rugby chairman Sir Bill Beaumont and former vice chairman Agustin Pichot.
Former World Rugby Chairman candidate, and former Argentina international, Gus Pichot, has called for more Formula 1 (F1) style ‘cliffhangers’ to save rugby from its “worst place” in five years.
His comments come in the midst of the latest wave of World Rugby elections, which Planet Rugby understands will come through at some point today (Thursday, November 14).
“It’s about the cliffhanger”
Speaking on Off the Ball Breakfast, Pichot called for all games in the sport to have “constant cliffhangers”, detailing how only some have them at the moment.
“If you look at how a film is being made, it’s about the cliffhanger. The cliffhanger of rugby is distressed, it’s so broken that only some games bring you that cliffhanger,” he said.
Pichot added: “You cannot leave it to just ‘maybe it happens at Twickenham’, the game should have it constantly and that’s in the speed of the game and the reaction to the constant cliffhanger. If you don’t have that, you lose the opportunity on a live window.”
He also used the example of the rapid growth of F1 as a prime example of what these cliffhangers can have on a struggling sport.
“Look at F1 or a qualifier in football, everything is played with a cliffhanger situation. They keep you for the whole weekend, not just 80 minutes, the whole weekend.
“I find it very boring,” he continued. “But you’re there watching because they bring you into this. In rugby, we don’t have that; we miraculously wait for a friendly to turn out good and you pay £100 to go an see it, and you don’t take young kids because it’s too expensive. Everything has to do with everything.”
“We went back 20 years”
The former Los Pumas star ran for World Rugby Chairman back in 2020 but was edged to the post by Bill Beaumont by 28 votes to 23.
Commenting on this, he said he felt blocked by the “conservatism of rugby”, which has also taken the sport “back 20 years in politics”.
“When I was running I had a plan,” he said. “I had a fan engagement plan that had platforms and a digital game, so that was technology; and then the competition structure, the laws and growth. I didn’t say it would be achievable, but at least it was a plan.”
He added: “Clearly, it was blocked by the conservatism of rugby and now five years later we are in our worst place because we’ve polarised the whole thing again. We went back 20 years in politics.”
His comments come during the latest World Rugby Chairman elections, with either Abdelatif Benazzi and Brett Robinson set to replace the outgoing Beaumont.
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