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Clubs trial laws to simplify game
Rupert Guinness
Wednesday, January 17, 2007
Australian clubs will join a worldwide trial of experimental laws aimed at revamping the game when the Shute Shield starts in April.
Rod Macqueen, the 1999 World Cup-winning Wallabies coach and just one of the principal figures behind the ongoing process of simplifying rugby's lawbook, will address the 13 Shute Shield head coaches tonight to discuss which experimental laws from the 26 that have been devised will be used in the Sydney club competition.
It will trial four "experimental law variations", known as the Stellenbosch Laws after the South African university where the innovative project began last year. It is hoped the Brisbane club competition will follow Sydney.
"It is a great initiative by the International Rugby Board and possibly unique to the sport. It is aimed at covering all parts of the game," Macqueen said.
Much of the focus was on the breakdown and tackle area where, says Macqueen, "at one stage there was 32 decisions to make when someone was tackled for the referee. And in any time two or three of those have been broken." But the laws that will be on trial in Sydney will cover the receipt of ball by a defending player inside the 22-metre line, the numbers and throw-ins at the lineout, the off-side line behind a scrum and sanctions.
Australia is not the only target for trials of the experimental law variations - or ELVs - that evolved from the IRB law book being stripped and steadily rebuilt.
They are already being followed extensively and with success in Scotland's Super Cup, and will be trialled in other countries, such as New Zealand, England, Ireland and France.
And while the number and type of laws to be trialled will vary from nation to nation, it is envisaged a proposed template for a new law book to be approved by the IRB will be ready for a worldwide trial by 2009.
So what changes can Australian club rugby fans expect in this year's Shute Shield when it kicks off on April 7 with the trial laws in place?
"The idea is to make it an easier game for the players to understand, and for the coaches; and, obviously, the spectators," Macqueen said. "You hope that they [fans] will see more rugby and less subjective decisions [by the referee]."
Macqueen will analyse how the Sydney teams respond to the laws on the lineout that have cut restriction on numbers.
"It will be interesting to see how teams and coaches adapt, what sort of tactics they put in knowing they have the ball and how many players they put into it," he said.
Based on trials so far, it is also anticipated the five metre offside line behind scrums will free up space and heighten the scrum's role.
"We should see, for instance, more back-row moves being played because we have a little bit more room," said Macqueen, who has been working on these experimental law variations for the IRB with a rich think-tank of rugby knowledge and experience that includes Frenchman Pierre Villepreux, Scot Richie Dixon, Ian McIntosh of South Africa and New Zealand's Graham Mourie.
"Over the last 100 years we have continually added laws. It has been an issue," Macqueen said. "We have basically been treating the symptoms rather than the cause, so there is also a knock-on effect with these things.
"A lot of the time they are not seen until two or three years later. It's a bit like our Australian taxation system, laws get continually added. Since Stellenbosch we have taken a lot of laws out and have now started to add some.
"You can't really achieve what you aim to without going back to the start and then start to add. It is very important to realise that the whole idea of this is to get it right. We are not saying these are the right laws but certainly we are seeing some very positive signs. There is a realisation that we really do need to do something."