The chairman and vice-chairman, plus eight others elected by the council, form a 10-person executive committee to manage the IRB's affairs.
The net effect is an inbuilt bloc-voting bias favouring, in order, the United Kingdom, the Six and Four Nations, Japan and Canada.
Of the 38 council and committee positions, the Six Nations unions have 18 (47.3 per cent), including 13 from the UK, Four Nations have 12 (31.6 per cent), Japan and Canada have four (10.5 per cent) and all others just three (7.9 per cent) between them.
When measured against team rankings, the unfairness of the structure most directly disadvantages the Polynesian playing countries - Tonga, Samoa and Fiji. Tonga (ranked nine) and Samoa (11) are the only countries in the top 11 without permanent council memberships. Samoa has one non-permanent regional representative. Tonga has no representative. Six countries ranked lower than Tonga - Scotland (10), Italy (12), Canada (13), Japan (15), Portugal (20) and Morocco (26) - have 11 council and committee representatives between them.
The structure underpins a clear historical bias. The IRB has conceded that giving second-tier nations short turnarounds between games is unfair. Samoa and Tonga, the main threats to weaker Six Nations countries, were hardest hit in a draw finalised by the IRB and dominated by Six and Four Nations. A Welsh member of the executive committee oversaw the process that appointed a Welsh referee for the Samoa-South Africa game, the outcome of which was always going to impinge on Wales' fortunes, given Samoa's three previous wins over them and their pre-tournament win over Australia.
A protesting Samoan player must now attend a refereeing course. Nigel Owens does not have to.
Fining the Tuilagi brothers for wearing labelled mouthguards was an unfair overreaction. The chief executive of manufacturer Opro was mystified as to why they were singled out - they received no money for wearing the product and several other players at the tournament also wore them. This compares with the hypocritical underreaction allowing England to admonish two cheating officials internally (England has five council and committee members) - no fines or apologies there.
There were one-minute silences for the 9/11 tragedy and Japanese tsunami before Cup games. The tsunami that hit Samoa was denied the same.
Such double-standards are not new. Fiji were at the receiving end of several anomalous refereeing decisions in a crucial Cup game against France in 1999. In 2007, the IRB threatened the Tongan team, who wished to dye their hair green to support an Irish sponsor. The IRB said nothing about the French team who dyed their hair blond in 1995.
The classification of Fiji, Tonga and Samoa as second-tier nations alongside Japan, Canada, Romania and the United States is a joke. Collectively they have racked up 20-plus wins over tier-one nations, including Argentina, Australia, Ireland, France, Wales, Italy, Scotland and the Lions.
The Polynesian countries are not rich. Their greatest resource is human capital; their players play all over the world because of money. Rich unions exploit this talent. Clubs often refuse to release them for the Pacific Nations tournament, hence they dip in the rankings between tournaments. Other countries use them to bolster national teams via the three-year residency rule, then prevent them from joining their home unions by the one-country-only rule. Filo Tiatia played one game for the All Blacks but could not then play for Tonga.
Tonga and Samoa deserve better. Players of Tongan and Samoan descent played for nine countries in this year's World Cup.
Eliota Fuimaono-Sapolu was wrong to equate the IRB with apartheid and the Holocaust. He was right in saying the IRB is biased. Whether conscious or unconscious, intentional or unintentional, the IRB borders on structural racism.
A truly international IRB must trust the wider membership. The Six and Four Nations countries have grown the game and generate more money; however, the current inequalities beg a next step.
The council should include permanent members from all countries ranked in the top 20 at the close of each World Cup - one union, one vote. Regional associations should elect one member each - unions with permanent representatives excluded. How else will all nations learn and develop? Tonga, Samoa and Fiji must enter the southern Four Nations. Amend the one-country rule to a two-year stand-down. Train international referees from non-Six and Four Nations countries. Make clubs release Polynesian players for internationals.
As Sapolu said: "One doesn't have to be a rocket scientist to see the unfairness, but one has to be an idiot not to see it." Unfortunately, he must now do community service for being brown and proud.
* Rawiri Taonui is professor of Indigenous Studies at AUT University.
