Sports After Dark

The Super 14 begins on Friday, and the 2008 edition of this tournament will feature some of the Experimental Law Variations aimed at promoting more attacking play. But what exactly are these new laws, and how will they effect the style of play in the Southern Hemisphere’s premier club competition?

The decision to use the ELVs for the Super 14 was a hasty one, perhaps borne out of an unentertaining World Cup, and as a result SANZAR decided to leave out three of the most radical changes: hands allowed in the ruck, collapsing a maul and removing numbers from the lineout. Those which are left are a mixture of common sense changes, and laws favouring attacking play.

Some of the more common sense changes include allowing teams to throw the ball backwards when taking a quick throw in, rather than the current requirement that the throw be straight, and no longer allowing teams to take the ball inside their own 22 and then kick directly to touch. The intention of the latter law is to encourage counter-attacks rather than aerial ping pong like kicking duels.

Other laws fall into the “evolutionary not revolutionary” category, such as removing the corner flags to make scoring tries in the corner easier and allowing the non-throwing hooker to stand wherever he likes at lineouts. The final evolutionary change is the offside lines are established as soon as a tackle takes place, removing any confusion as to where players may join from and hopefully meaning we will never hear a referee refer to the confusing “gate” ever again.

One of the most obvious and radical changes is moving the offside line at the scrum from the last foot to five metres behind the last foot, creating a larger buffer between the two backlines. Players such as Dan Carter, Nick Evans and Matt Giteau have already been taking advantage of this law in trial matches, Carter ghosting through the line from the first attacking scrum against the Waratahs is an obvious example.

Touch judges will now be known as “flag judges” and their primary responsibility will be to enforce the offside law, much like assistant referees do in football. There will also be fewer opportunities to kick for goal as only offside and foul play will result in penalties, all other penalty offences now result in free kicks.

The obvious flaw with some of these new laws is that they require not only appointed flag judges, but also communication equipment. While this is not an issue for Super 14 level, if these laws are adopted at all levels of the game, club and youth rugby will struggle to enforce some of them.

Trials of these variations have been successful in some Australian club competitions, Scotland’s Super Cup and the New Zealand ‘B’ provincial tournament as well as some university level games in various nations. Most have seen the ball spend longer in play, fewer shots at goal, less kicking for position and more use of short attacking kicks.

This is also the highest level at which the ELVs have been trial, and should they be successful it is likely they will be be trialled at full international level. The fate of the three most radical changes remains unknown, but the failure to be adopted by SANZAR is likely their death knell.

Last year’s Super 14 saw a change to the scrum engagement process and players took a number of weeks to get used to the change. It is quite likely that fans will see some confusion from players again as they adapt, but by the end of the tournament fans should be seeing some wonderful attacking rugby.

Similar Posts:

• Northern Hemisphere must get on board with new laws
• IRB call for experimental laws in Super 14 premature
• New Zealand to join IRB law trial
• Aw Ref: Would somebody please explain the new laws to Bryce Lawrence?
• Take the goggles off Stu!

The Carter, Evans and Giteau likely to get a boost from experimental laws by Hamish McBrearty, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.