0
Sour taste from rugby's half-pie ELVs
By GREG FORD - Sunday Star Times | Sunday, 07 September 2008
Sour taste from rugby's half-pie ELVs - New Zealand's source for sport, rugby, cricket & league news on Stuff.co.nz
The International Rugby Board has not quite run up the white flag but it's finally shouldering some blame for the shambolic state of rugby's laws.
IRB boss Mike Miller has admitted that, "in hindsight", the global trial of the ELVs has been flawed.
The All Blacks will have to endure another law flip-flop in November when they travel to the northern hemisphere where the offside line at the tackle is policed differently and penalties rather than free kicks are awarded for breakdown offences.
To add to the chaos, it's unclear which set of laws will be used for the All Blacks' historic test against the Wallabies in Hong Kong en route to the UK: those used in the three Bledisloe Cup tests to date, or the set both teams will have to adjust to a week later in Europe.
All Blacks coach Graham Henry highlighted the pending problem in an interview with the Sunday Star-Times last week and said the situation was "far from ideal".
A NZRU spokesman even confirmed no decision had been made on which rules will apply in next year's Super 14.
The IRB, after investing nearly four years in the trial of the experimental law variations (ELVs), looks set to face a galling climb-down when it attempts to return to just one rule book.
Miller: "In hindsight we might have bitten off more than we could chew.
"We looked at a lot of areas in the game we thought we could improve. The trials were not universal in scope. They were trialled at senior level in some countries and not in others, which didn't help.
"Perhaps a more simple approach would have been better."
The ELVs' day of reckoning will come next May when the top rugby politicians from each nation gather in Dublin to decide which of the 33 experimental laws will be inked into the game's rule book.
There appears to be fierce opposition to the ELVs in the north, especially from their influential rugby press. It's not hard to see why. Their rule book is in a shambolic state.
The big competitions Guinness Premiership, European Cup and Anglo-Welsh Cup are using different sets of the ELVs and it has created chaos, confusion and suspicion in the north if commentary from Stephen Jones in The Sunday Times is any reflection. He recently wrote: "A load of Australians helped by the sheer, witless gullibility of rugby in New Zealand and South Africa, want change for changes sake and their own selfish interests."
Rifts between north and south are nothing new and generally fade away before they gain much traction but this one could become serious.
If both sides are unwilling to budge, and their views are as entrenched as they seem, an ugly split could occur. Miller said: "I hope not. Let's wait and see. Debate is healthy and we have certainly had plenty of that."
Reply With Quote
Greg says ...
