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NEW Zealand’s provincial championship is to take the radical move of experimenting with two referees next year, according to a report as World Rugby looks at a dramatic shake-up of the game’s laws.
The bold innovation of twin referees is one of a number of changes being looked at — with others focusing on the tackle and ruck areas — as rugby looks to build on its growing popularity.
A report into the recent World Cup in England found it was both the best attended in the tournament’s history and drew a record 120 million viewers around the world.
The idea of two referees has been mooted for several years and has already been successfully trialled in South Africa’s Varsity Cup competition.
New Zealand Rugby has not officially confirmed its role in the experiment but a spokesman indicated to AFP a statement on the issue may be issued in the near future.
“They (changes) are widely known after provincial unions sounded out clubs across the country about whether or not they wanted their premier competitions to trial the rules in order to prepare players for the representative season,” Fairfax Media reported.
“Two referees will officiate together during New Zealand’s national provincial championship next year as part of a World Rugby trial of proposed rule changes.”
Grant van Velden, a high performance sports scientist at Stellenbosch University near Cape Town, believes it is “an almost impossible task” for one referee to control a game of rugby.
“The Varsity Cup has successfully trialled the two referee system for the last few tournaments with outstanding success,” said Van Velden, who has worked with the South African Rugby Referees Association as well as several Springboks and Wallabies.
The second referee is expected to primarily focus on a new off-side line one metre back from rucks.
Other changes will see the imaginary “gate” done away with and players will be able to enter the breakdown from any angle as long as they come from an onside position.
Tackler’s rights are also set to be reduced with a new requirement of having to retire one metre before returning to the breakdown and thereby eliminating their ability to steal the ball in the same act as effecting a tackle.
World Cup-winning All Blacks coach Steve Hansen said after attending a World Rugby meeting in London this year that there was “a responsibility to ensure that rugby is as simple, enjoyable and safe to play as possible.”
http://www.news.com.au/sport/rugby/n...dbbb7bb1857901
now to be known as the "sir Richie rule"
"The main difference between playing League and Union is that now I get my hangovers on Monday instead of Sunday - Tom David
i don't like the removal of the gate. surely it is way too easy to clear someone out if you come in the from the side.
Especially since the offside line is at the defending lines back feet. though surely they would change it around a bit.
It says "retire one metre (probably means meter) before returning to the breakdown"
Not "returning to the ruck"
So I'm guessing it will take out the jackal completely, just from reading the article.
Next we'll have sets of tackles...
and 5 people in a scrum.
It would mean that you would need 2 openside loosies - 1 at the tackle , 1 at the ball. How hard would it be to defend a ruck a couple of metres from your line against a big low running prop if the defence is a metre back from the ruck? I've never liked "the gate"-too open to refs interpritation for mine-penalised for "just missing the gate"-what a load of crap- half the time without intention of committing a foul
I think it'll hurt other teams more than the Wallabies. The one meter rule would work ok for the second man in pilfer, not so much for a tackler pilfering.
C'mon the![]()
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Removing a contest for the ball. Very pro Union...
Stupidest idea I've read all year. And I spent 15 weeks trolling Reddit while I was looking for work