Speaking to insidethegames yesterday from his home in Buenos Aires, Pichot responded to the suggestion made in the Daily Mail that Wales and Ireland were considering switching votes to him but couched his words diplomatically.

"I am happy that they read and understood the manifesto," Pichot said.

"It’s for all nations and will be a great change for sport.

"For all, a global and more equal game."

A total of 30 of the 51 votes are allocated to the 10 Tier 1 unions in the Six Nations and Rugby Championship, another two each to the six regional associations - Africa, Asia, Europe, Oceania, North plus Central America and South America - plus two for Japan and one each for seven unions - Canada, the United States, Uruguay, Georgia, Romania, Samoa and Fiji.

On Wednesday, Pichot told the BBC’s Rugby Union Weekly podcast that he was starting 20 votes to 14 down - counting on the 12 votes held by South Africa, New Zealand, Australia and his native Argentina as part of the SANZAAR group, plus the two votes held by South America, but also calculating that the Six Nations - each of whom has three votes - would vote en masse for Sir Bill along with Europe, which carries two votes.

But those figures may have shifted.

Asia’s support for Pichot’s candidacy was officially confirmed yesterday as the member unions of Asia Rugby gave him 24 votes of support in an internal poll, with two unions voting for Sir Bill and two abstaining.

With those two Asian Federation votes guaranteed, Pichot is now looking for the other two Asian votes held by Japan, the nation that hosted the 2019 Rugby World Cup with such spectacular success.

The two votes held by Rugby Africa are also of key importance to his campaign.

All votes must be in by Thursday (April 30), but the results will not be announced until a World Rugby annual meeting which will take place online on May 12.

Plans to create wider competition pathways in these two continents are a hugely important part of Pichot's manifesto, while he has also placed the Olympic Movement at the heart of his campaign.

Pichot’s vision of the game’s future involves using the Olympic Movement to help expand rugby union worldwide, especially in Asia, Africa and South America.

Key to this will be the creation of new competitions for men and women, with rugby sevens offering a pathway towards elite competition at the Games.

But he also wants to create regional tournaments in 15-a-side rugby, offering teams the chance of playing more regularly and at a higher standard.

To the question of how he would use the Olympic Movement to help expand the game, Pichot told insidethegames: "When Bernard Lapasset, one of my mentors, asked me to join the campaign for bringing back rugby to the Olympic Games, I thought that it would be amazing for the growth, even if we had a lot of resistance from some conservative unions.

"We decided to go for that amazing process and learnt about the movement and what it represented.

"Being part of the Olympic family has made our sport bigger and given the opportunity to many nations to dream big. 

"And to their players a chance to be Olympians."

Presumably it is the relative simplicity and directness of sevens rugby which makes it the most practicable option for developing the game worldwide?

"Exactly," Pichot agreed. 

"We have been working with the regions to evaluate more tournaments that can then qualify for the series and ultimately to an Olympic Games - the dream of many of our athletes round the world that in other ways they couldn’t have.

"We need to build a solid plan with the regions - defining what’s best for them and giving them support.

"Sevens is a great entry point and the Olympic Games provides a clear pathway."

For full interview go to the Big Read.