John Jeffrey ‘bitter and betrayed’ after Scotland snubs World Rugby bid

John Jeffrey says he feels “bitter and betrayed” after withdrawing from the race to become the next chairman of World Rugby, having failed to secure the support of the Scottish Rugby Union.

The former Scotland and Lions flanker, 65, was informed on Friday that the SRU would not be supporting his candidacy, plunging the election contest into disarray.

Jeffrey, who starred for Scotland in their Grand Slam triumph over England in 1990, has resigned from all of his current positions, including World Rugby vice-chair and Six Nations president, with immediate effect following the humiliating snub to his bid to succeed Sir Bill Beaumont.

His shock resignation leaves the door open for Brett Robinson, the former Australia flanker and current World Rugby executive board member, to win the election in November and become the first southern hemisphere chair since it became an elected position in 1996.

Jeffrey was the only credible candidate to stand from the northern hemisphere, however sources have indicated that either a candidate from South Africa or Argentina may now stand, with Gus Pichot, who stood against Beaumont four years ago, among those tipped to throw their hat in the ring.

‘I know I was favourite to win’

“I’m very bitter. I’m very upset – very, very upset. To be beaten by your own country really, really hurts,” Jeffrey told BBC Sport Scotland.

“It came as a huge shock. It doesn’t reflect well on us as a country. People are now laughing at us – ‘you said you were standing and now you’re not’. I don’t know if they are laughing at me or if they’re laughing at Scottish Rugby, but they’re certainly laughing. It does not reflect well on the [SRU] board.

“There’s a lot of politics. I know I was favourite to win. There was opposition in terms of candidates from Italy, France and Australia and had I been beaten by any of them I would have shaken their hands and said ‘well done’. What really sticks in my throat is that I got beaten by my own country. My own country at the 11th hour have withdrawn their nomination, which beggars belief. Betrayed is not too strong a word. I’m out, I’m back to farming again.”

In an interview with Telegraph Sport, Jeffrey claimed the decision to withdraw support stemmed from his strong opposition to a governance restructuring in 2022 which led to the creation of Scottish Rugby Limited as an operating company with a Scottish Rugby Union board set up to act as ‘custodians of the game’.

Jeffrey had been assured of the support of the chair of the Scottish Rugby Limited, John McGuigan, when rumours first surfaced six weeks ago. However it appears that the Scottish Rugby Board held the decisive vote.

He said his candidacy had been undermined from within, with other unions being briefed that he did not have SRU backing.

“I have been led down a garden path for a year and they have then pulled the plug at the 11th hour,” he said. “If they had any decency they could have said say at the start we were never going to support you but instead all along I feel like I have been played and that’s not the way to treat anybody, it doesn’t matter what your past is. It leaves a very sour taste. I wanted to leave with my dignity intact and a bit of honesty and hopefully I have done that. There are lots of people I knew on that board who are seemingly now dead against me, but I keep getting reminded that is rugby politics.

“There was bad blood but surely we could have put it all behind us for the greater good. But as I don’t have their support or faith, I felt it was only right that I resigned from all those positions, so I stepped down from World Rugby and Six Nations as of today, because I don’t believe it’s that I can genuinely represent Scottish rugby when I don’t have the support of the Union.”

‘Scotland are now back to square one and that is not good’

Jeffrey warned that the unedifying episode would be deeply damaging for Scotland’s reputation and that it take another decade for a Scottish representative to get to the top of World Rugby.

“I could easily have stayed on for two more months and gone to meetings and felt like a lame duck, but that’s a waste of everybody’s time and everybody’s money,” he added.

“But I have done so with huge regret. It takes years to build up these relationships in both Six Nations and rugby international bodies. We’ve managed to get somebody in these positions, but we are now back to square one and that is not good for Scottish rugby as a whole, never mind the debate on the global game.

“I guarantee you we will not get people in these positions again for another 10 years. Instead, we are back to the bad old days of infighting and politics. I will hold my hand up and say I am part of that, but the Scotland supporters must be sick of it. We have got a great team on the pitch but off the pitch, there is still this incessant dog-fighting. All I will say to them is that I apologise, it is not how I wanted to leave the game. But that decision was taken out of my hands.”

Robinson favourite to win election

Telegraph Sport revealed in July that Robinson had been persuaded to stand by Sanzaar against Jeffrey, who had announced his intention to stand during the World Cup in France last year.

The former chair of both the Scottish Rugby Union and Six Nations Council had been a World Rugby council member since 2010 and was elected unopposed as the governing body’s vice-chair in May last year after Bernard Laporte was forced to stand down from the post after being found guilty of corruption charges by a French court.

The Borders farmer has already circulated his manifesto, declaring his intention to stand for just one term, described as a “1,000-day action plan”. His vision is to ensure the game is “sustainable and growing” and vows to unlock participation, improve the experience for spectators and viewers, drive growth in new markets and move faster on diversity and inclusion.

Robinson is now the outstanding favourite to win the backing of the World Rugby council at the election in November, with the other two candidates, former France back row forward Abdel Benazzi and Andrea Rinaldo, the former Italy international, not expected to attract enough support within the Six Nations or Sanzaar to challenge the Australian.

The council, which will elect the new chair, has 52 members, including the non-voting chairman, and each of the Six Nations unions have three votes each, with a combined block of 18.

The four Sanzaar unions also have three votes each, as does Japan, with Canada, Georgia, Samoa, Romania, United States and Uruguay each with one vote. The remaining votes are made up of the six regional associations representing Africa, Asia, Europe, North America, South America and Oceania, with two votes each.