The current voting system is weighted toward the "original" powers of the game. Votes are distributed as two each to England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, France, South Africa, New Zealand, and Australia. Supplementing this - and as the voice of the little bloke designed to keep the bastards honest - are single votes to Argentina, Italy, and Canada, with four other votes to the regions of Europe, Africa, Oceania, and Asia (which is essentially Japan).

Of the 23 votes, 11 are held by the 6N, with another one available at any time via the European delegate for a simple majority of 12. A two-thirds majority would require another four votes, and with the number of foreign players in Europe from North America, Argentina, and Oceania, it must be a relief for the Trinations power bloc that the Celts and French don't often see eye-to-eye with England or each other. The Trinations typically target the Celts for their voting, and will be able to offer incentives to the Pacific Rim given the favourable time zones available.

Around the table at RWC voting time, with the basic understanding that the hemispheres will alternate their hosting rights from north to south every four years, one day we're going to wake up and find that those smaller nations deserve a bigger say. No more relevant has this appeared than by the on-field performances of teams like Namibia, Portugal and Georgia, who have managed to impress against better ranked teams. This is a clear indicator that they have talent, but also that their back office is working well enough to get the team together at short notice.

So how to go about it? Firstly, I think we need to dispose of the two-votes-per-union system for the "founder" unions of the IRB. Its clear that to move rugby as a global game we need to cut away the dead flesh of elitism, while making sure that bigger unions still retain their clout or can form alliances. Next, look at the distribution of nations across the world. At present, we have teams with longstanding history as both RWC sides and IRB members who don't get a say - notably USA and Japan. The number of member NATIONS and regional representation for the minor unions needs to increase.

I say we take the current top 18 nations and give them one vote each. This includes the Trinations, Six Nations, Argentina, Fiji, Tonga, Samoa, Canada, Romania, Georgia, USA, and Japan. This is reward for those with longstanding rugby histories at the top level, and/or those who are strong representatives of their region to give the voting a more international flavour. Europe and the Southern Hemisphere still retain a strong presence, but the Americas, Pacific, and Eastern European nations get a better say.

Next, we re-align some of the regional voting areas. At present, one representative for the whole of Europe (stretching from the Atlantic to the Urals) is unsatisfactory. Similarly, not having a representative for the Americas outside of Canada and Argentina is poor, and the Pacific Islands only being given 1 vote is ludicrous given their contribution to world rugby. I propose the following regions being given one vote each, with represented teams and their present rankings included:

Africa - 22 nations (15 currently ranked)
Botswana (79), Burundi (-), Cameroon (81), Ghana (-), Guyana (72), Ivory Coast (39), Kenya (38), Madagascar (44), Mali (-), Mauritania (-), Mauritius (-), Morocco (29), Namibia (24), Nigeria (89), Rwanda (-), Senegal (67), Swaziland (82), Togo (-), Tunisia (35), Uganda (43), Zambia (71), Zimbabwe (57)

Americas - 17 nations (15 currently ranked)
Bahamas  (90), Barbados  (62), Bermuda  (65), Brazil  (33), British Virgin Islands (-), Cayman  (59), Chile  (25), Colombia  (66), Jamaica  (77), Mexico (-), Paraguay  (30), Peru  (64), St. Lucia  (83), St. Vincent & The Grenadines  (75), Trinidad & Tobago  (58), Uruguay  (20), Venezuela  (60)

Asia - 22 nations (11 currently ranked)
Arabian Gulf (47), Armenia (-), Azerbaijan (-), Brunei (-), Cambodia (-), China (45), Chinese Taipei (42), Hong Kong (28), India (84), Israel (93), Korea (23), Kyrgyzstan (-), Lao (-), Malaysia (70), Mongolia (-), Pakistan (-), Philippines (-), Singapore (53), Sri lanka (49), Thailand (-), Thailand (74), Uzbekistan (-)

Eastern Europe - 14 nations (all ranked)
Bosnia & Herzegovina (95), Bulgaria (91), Croatia (48), Czech republic (34), Finland (94), Hungary (68), Kazakhstan (36), Latvia (41), Lithuania (55), Moldova (27), Poland (31), Russia (19), Serbia (73), Ukraine (37)

Pacific - 8 nations (7 ranked)
American Samoa (-), Cook Islands  (50), Guam  (87), Niue Islands  (69), Papua New Guinea  (52), Solomon Islands  (76), Tahiti  (88), Vanuatu  (92)

Western Europe - 15 nations (all ranked)
Andorra (61), Austria (85), Belgium (32), Denmark (56), Germany (26), Luxembourg (80), Malta (54), Monaco (78), Netherlands (46), Norway (86), Portugal (22), Slovenia (63), Spain (21), Sweden (40), Switzerland (51)

This brings us to 24 votes in total, which also gives us clear-cut rules for simple or two-thirds majorities. It also provides an interesting look at the voting blocs determined by different criteria:

REGION - Africa 2, Americas 4, Asia 2, Eastern Europe 3, Pacific 6, Western Europe 7
HEMISPHERE - Northern 14, Southern 10
TIME ZONE - Americas 4, Europe 12, Pacific 8

The devil of course is in the detail - how these member unions go about selecting their representative will provide a few headaches, but not more so than they probably have now. Certainly the tension between the Pacific Nations will be diminished as they each get their own vote, and should create a more harmonious environment for them and the other Pacific Rim nations to have more of a say in the growth and development of the game. With the larger unions needing to ally themselves with smaller neighbours, balance of power will not be as clear-cut as before, and from this sort of change, new things will grow.