Laws confuse before game starts

Laws confuse before game starts

By Bret Harris
November 17, 2007

THE three SANZAR nations have written to the International Rugby Board requesting the home Tests series next June and July be played under the new experimental laws to avoid confusion during the domestic season.

The IRB has decided to trial the Stellenbosch Laws, designed to make the game more attractive, for a year from July 1.

The main changes include allowing hands in the ruck, no numbering off in the lineout, no passing back into the 22 for a kick into touch on the full, and players being made to stand back 5m from the base of the scrum in defence.

But Australia, New Zealand and world champion South Africa are hosting northern-hemisphere teams in June and July, which means some Tests would be played under the existing rules and others under the new laws.

England, France, Ireland, Italy and Wales are all touring the southern hemisphere, and they are understood to be reluctant to play under the new laws.

Complicating the issue, the IRB has invited SANZAR to play under the new laws in next year's Super 14.

"We are looking for continuity," SANZAR tournament director Peter Rowles said.

"We could be in a situation where we play under the new laws (Super 14), the old laws (home Tests) and the new laws again (Tri- Nations)."

But the introduction of the new laws in the Super 14 is yet to be finalised.

Although Australia has reservations about the new lineout laws, it is in favour of adopting all the rules, while New Zealand and South Africa are yet to indicate whether they will support them.

yer theres a bit of a mess there that needs to be sorted out. thatd make for some extremely tough games if we had to swap back to the old rules for tests. englands boring game beat us in the WC, imagine how bad it would be when they are playing the same and we are trying to play even more attacking than usual. not to mention wed probably be penalised out of the game for hands in the ruck

By Bret Harris
November 17, 2007

THE three SANZAR nations have written to the International Rugby Board requesting the home Tests series next June and July be played under the new experimental laws to avoid confusion during the domestic season.

Check! (SANZAR returns serve brilliantly, lobbing ball deep into the NH court) :)

north hemi teams wont take that lying down though

I think it's only fair, I mean SANZAR appear to be doing IRB's dirty work here, testing out the ELVs before they're internationally ratified, what better way to test their impact completely than with some (probably inconsequential) end-of-season party trips for NH under 23 sides (let's face it the invitational test series' are hardly played for sheep stations at the moment, are they?)

Easy - just don't accept the ELVs at S14 or 3N level unitll the IRB does the same in the north.
Seems like the IRB just like "messin'" with southern hemisphere teams but only want consistency for NH teams.

Keep the ELVs at provincial level only for another year.
Don't need them in S14 at all - its the most exciting comp in the IRB family.