World Rugby to cut scrums, add orange cards

LONDON: Elite rugby union could see the introduction of orange cards after World Rugby unveiled trials of 10 temporary optional laws to cut the risk of coronavirus infection.

The measures, designed mainly for recreational rugby, include a drastic reduction in the number of scrums per match, limiting numbers in a maul and quickening up rucks.

In rugby union, a yellow card leads to 10 minutes in the sin-bin with a red card seeing a player sent off.

The suggested orange card, which would apply only to the professional game, is designed to reinforce high-tackle guidelines and reduce face-to-face contact.

It would apply to potential redcard offences, with a player removed from the field while an incident is checked by the television match official.

If deemed a red-card offence, the player would not return. If not, they would return after 15 minutes.

One persistently thorny problem for professional rugby union, long before Covid-19, has been the amount of time it takes to reset a scrum.

But the proposals include doing away with scrum resets, to be replaced by free kicks or penalties. Where “no infringement occurs” the ball goes to the team with the scrum put-in.

World Rugby estimated the changes could reduce scrum contact exposure by more than 30 percent.

“We have extensively evaluated the perceived risk areas within the game,” said World Rugby chairman Bill Beaumont.

Measures would, however, be implemented at the discretion of individual unions based on the risk of virus infection in their countries and government guidelines.

And the Welsh Rugby Union soon signalled their opposition by saying they had no plans to implement any of the law changes.

“I’m not a fan. I think it eats away at the integrity of the game,” WRU chairman Gareth Davies told the BBC.

“There are a couple of positives regarding the changes, looking at the scrum, it would be great if we could put something in place longterm.”

“(But) At the moment, our Union has no firm plans to implement them.”

Davies, himself a former Wales fly-half, added: “Is it equitable that the risk to the fly-half, for example, is a tenth of the risk to the prop forward or the second row?

“If there is any risk, changing the laws or not, we shouldn’t be playing.”

Meanwhile England’s Rugby Football Union said it “recognised” World Rugby’s work but added it had its own review under way looking at options for returning to training and playing.

Hygiene protocols put forward by the global governing body include the use of hand and face sanitiser and washing the ball.

Players would, where possible, be asked to change their kit at halftime and have been advised to avoid pre-match huddles, hugging team-mates in celebration, and spitting.