O’Neill tipped to chair IRB

AUSTRALIAN Rugby Union chief John O’Neill could be in line to replace the late Vernon Pugh QC as the Chairman of the International Rugby Board (IRB).

O'Neill, Scotland's Allan Hosie and France's Bernard Lapasset are now ranked as the favourites to take over as the new IRB chief.

Ireland's Dr Syd Millar deputised for Pugh when he first took ill nearly a year ago, but Millar has already indicated that he does not want the job for good.

"I do enjoy contributing to the IRB as an ARU delegate," O'Neill , who still has a contract with the ARU until 2004, said yesterday. "Whether that leads to a more senior role at some stage will be determined by others, not by me."

Elections for the top job in the IRB should be held after this year's Rugby World Cup finishes in November. That tournament is making that O'Neill's top priority at this stage, as he explained "Syd's doing a more than capable job at this stage, I'm only concentrating on delivering an outstanding World Cup later this year."

Meanwhile, Lions prop Tom Smith has revealed that the season-ending foot injury he sustained last week was caused by an epileptic seizure.

The Northampton loosehead and Test Lion in Australia (2001) and South Africa (1997) has suffered from epilepsy for the last 13 years. He is a patron of the charity Enlighten Action for Epilepsy.

I have a pile of letters at home from children with epilepsy, and I always write to tell them it is not something to hide away or something that should be stigmatised," he said.