“Replacements guarantee a climax of chaos, not tension”

Rugby’s most outspoken and influential journalist

BILL BEAUMONT, the chairman of World Rugby, is to B act to stop mass pitch invasions by a group of people who I’ve always regarded as undesirables, intent on wrecking rugby matches.

You’ve guessed it. Beaumont wants to stop replacements making a farce of the game and believes that if he does, then the game will be safer, the hits will not be so punishingly hard, matches will be more dramatic and more coherent late on. And that we will see the return of a type of player we used to adore – multi-talented, multi-positional players with the ability to play in two or three positions. Bill, now you’re talking. This is long overdue.

Decades ago, they used to end the English rugby season with a quaint but popular tournament called the Middlesex Sevens, which sold out at Twickenham and did wonders for bar receipts.

One year, at a time when replacements were not allowed