ELVs get preliminary pass mark

The much-anticipated Experimental Law Variations (ELVs) that will be trialled in the Super 14 this year got a preliminary pass mark from coaches and officials.

The SANZAR nations (South Africa, New Zealand and Australia) have now had their first real glance at the ELVs.

The past week afforded a number of teams – like the defending Bulls, the Cheetahs, Stormers, Waratahs, Reds, Blues, Highlanders, Chiefs, Crusaders and Hurricanes – a run under the amended laws.

The reaction from coaches and officials have been as varied as their respective teams’ tactics, but they all agree that the rules could result in a faster game – although some already had reservations about match officials’ often diverse interpretations.

We bring you a collection of the reactions from all three SANZAR countries!

<B>Dick Muir – Sharks coach:</B>

“I’m quite positive about the new laws. We’ve been training for it and the way we’ve been wanting to play has been geared towards increasing the amount of ball-in-play time. That’s one area that you can really control if your players are better conditioned than the opposition. So we’ve placed a lot of emphasis on that area of the game. So I’m quite excited about that.

“I’d say that the game has probably changed in a way where they’re wanting to allow the referee not to have as much of an impact on the game, but with only having changed half the laws I think it’s going to be quite difficult to referee.

“They’ve tried to speed the game up and make it more of an entertaining type of game, where there are a lot more free kicks and a lot more ball-in-play time. So with the increase in free kicks it will probably mean less scrums and less line-outs, but one can still chose to have those line-outs and have those scrums. So if you’ve got a dominant pack, and I believe with our type of players we’ll have a dominant pack, you can still slow the game up and have the set piece and use it to your advantage.”

<B>Frans Ludeke – Bulls coach:</B>

“Our game against the Boland Cavaliers showed that match officials may need a bit of time to get to grips with the new laws.

“What is very obvious is that quick turnovers give you the opportunity to play a more expansive game. The Cavaliers showed that by getting number to the breakdown you can dominate that aspect of the game. We will have to make some adjustments for our next game to ensure we are more competitive at the breakdown.”

<B>Peter de Villiers – Springbok coach:</B>

“South African players will have to adapt quickly to the changes or they will struggle. Their support play will have to be much quicker and speed to the point of breakdown will be a crucial factor.

“I can see that adapting to the new laws is still a problem for the players. The game is much faster now, and the reaction time of the players will have to be looked at.”

<B>Robbie Deans – Crusaders and Wallaby coach:</B>

“I have no doubt they would make for better rugby. It does not change the ability of the referee to control and to penalise where they believe a penalty is warranted. Anything is clear or obvious or cynical they have the same sanctions … but what they have as an added tool is what we refer to as a broken arm penalty, or a free kick.

“It gives the ability to be harder around the contact area, to be hard on the people who they want to move, for example the tackler rolling away.

“If you get that message across with a free kick early and consistently it will clean the game up. If they don’t get the response from the player they go to the sanctions that are greater.

“It may be harder for a player like Richie McCaw to actually claim good position and to take advantage of that, because the attack has the forward momentum so he has to drop back and because they are going forward they are more likely to get support and have a greater ability to remove him.”

<B>Pat Howard – GM Australian Rugby Union:</B>

“The game may be the same score it has been for the first 60 minutes, but with a war of attrition that post the 60-minute mark there’s so much more ball in play and the players are more fatigued.

“What we’re hoping for is the score to effectively double in that last 20 minutes.

“Every time you make a line break, the chances of you converting that into a try are a lot higher.

“You’re giving advantage to the attacking side, more continuity, more help for the coaches to say ‘let’s not kick it away’.

“Turning the ball over is a real contest and not a technical version of looking for a penalty.”

<B>Steve Walsh – New Zealand referee:</B>

“There is no doubt that it won’t be seamless in the first few weeks. It is going to be a big learning curve.

“That is the nature of the beast when you trial something in such a big competition like this.

“What I found difficult, is because there are some new laws I was getting confused on what are the new laws and what are the old laws.

“The old laws just came to me naturally, whereas they [the new laws] didn’t, I wasn’t sure if it was a free kick or a scrum.

“So I have to go back and upskill myself so it just becomes natural, so when I hit the competition running I am not making mistakes in law.

“The biggest thing I want to take out of it is to take away the subjectivity in the tackle from the referee’s decision making.”