Laws: changes in the wind
It has become usual that there are changes after each World Cup with a moratorium on changes for the rest of the four-year period. (The moratorium, it seems, is a pious myth as numerous 'clarifications/rulings' happen instead which have the force of laws and rugby continues to muddle along.
Countries can now put their names down to test out proposed changes. Such testing is known in Australia, England, France, Wales and in four of World Rugby's competitions – Nations Cup, Pacific Nations Cup, Tbilisi Cup and Under-20 Trophy.
The World Rugby competitions will try out all the possible changes. They will be selectively trues in Australia's National Rugby Championship, the Army Premiership in England, France's Academy League, New Zealand's National Provincial Championship and in Wales the Premiership and the Colleges Championship.
Clearly other countries will join in as they deem fit.
We shall go through the proposed changes as they appear in the law book. The big ones are the referees, the tackle, maul and the scrum. Mind you all law changes are important. After all it is the laws that give the game its inner distinctive beauty – make it different from tiddlywinks. Change the laws and you change the game.
And what about a five-metre drop out?
As the experiments go along, those playing guinea pig will report and reports will be examined by three World Rugby working committees (Law Review Group, the Scrum Steering Group and the Multi-Disciplinary Injury Prevention Group), then by the Rugby Committee and then by the executive of World Rugby. Law changes my be approved as late as November 2018.
Changes to be Tested
Law 3 – Number of Players
If a team cannot provide a suitably trained substitute in the front row after injury or sending off, the match will proceed with uncontested scrums but – here's the change – with eight players in each pack. (It has become a practice that seven players pack in the scrum while the other player joins the backs.
Law 5 – Time
If time is up and a penalty awarded, the team receiving the penalty is allowed to kick into touch and have the line-out.
Law 6 – Referee
Two on-field referees will be tried out in every match. It will be one referee's responsibility to monitor the new offside line at a breakdown.
South Africa asked for permission to use two onfield referees in the 1950s but it was turned down. In 1986 permission was granted to its use in the internal league at Stellenbosch University. The driving force was Dawie Snyman. It has been used in the Varsity Cup in South Africa and it is ironic that, now that the practice is spreading to other parts of the world, the Varsity Cup has abandoned it.
Law 8 – Advantage
If a team infringes more than once while advantage is being played, the non-offending captain will be allowed a choice of which penalty he would prefer.
Law 9 – Points
The try will be increased to six points while goals kicked will all be two points – penalty goal, dropped goal and conversion.
There will be no conversion necessary at a penalty try. The penalty try will count eight points.
Law 13 – Kick-offs
The variation allowed in Sevens for botched kick-offs will be used in 15-man rugby, namely a free kick at the middle of the half-way line and not a scrum. The scrum will not be an option at all.
Laws 15 & 16 – Tackle and Ruck
The 'gate' is gone. In fact the ruck after a tackle is gone. Now it is to be called a breakdown. There is an offside line a metre behind the breakdown. There is no more a requirement for players to enter from behind the gate formed by the bodies of the tackled player and the tackler. Side entry is done away with, but a player entering the breakdown must start from an onside position.
In addition the privilege that the tackler had of entering from 'any direction' is gone. He, too, must play from an onside position.
Law 17 – Maul
If a maul is formed, it must move forward within five seconds. If it does not do so the maul is declared over. If the referee can see the ball he will then allow 'a reasonable time' for the ball to emerge. If it does not emerge, a scrum is awarded.
Law 19 – Touch
This attempts to make it easier to decide the ins and outs of touch and to keep the game going.
* A player juggling to catch a ball, is out when he makes contact with touch. A player juggling the ball is deemed to be in possession of the ball.
* If a player in the field of play, jumps and knocks the ball back into play, play goes on as long as he does so before he hands, regardless of where he lands and where the ball was when he played it back into play.
* If a ball-carrier crosses the touchline and plays the ball back into the field before neither he nor the ball has landed in touch.
* If a player in touch, catches the ball before it reaches the plane of touch, it is the other side's throw-in. He is deemed to have taken the ball into touch.
Law 20 -Scrum
Forming the scrum
There will be just two calls – crouch, bind.
On bind the props will put their arms in the right positions and then all eight players will tighten their binds without pushing.
When this has happened the scrumhalf will put the ball in. The referee will not tell him to do so.
Leaving the decision to the scrumhalf will give the hooker a chance to signal his readiness and make him more likely to heel the ball.
The scrumhalf must put the ball in straight but the ball need not be along the middle line (the line under the seam formed by the joining of the two front rows. In fact the scrumhalf could have the outside of his left shoulder opposite the middle line and so be a shoulder's width closer to his own side.
Thus may make the hooker more likely to heel the ball.
It may also make for choosing broad-shouldered scrumhalves!
Wheeling
If a scrum wheels the new scrum will be where the scrum ended, not where the scrum was originally set.
Law 22 – In-goal
If the attacking team infringes in such a way that a five-metre scrum could be awarded, the defending team would have the option of the scrum or a drop-out from the five-metre line.
This is likely to reduce the number of scrums.
