Wales has no plans to adopt the new rugby laws – Davies

WALES have declined to adopt World Rugby law trials designed to reduce the risk of players catching coronavirus.

Welsh Rugby Union chairman Gareth Davies has gone further by questioning whether matches should even take place if there are continuing concerns about the spread of Covid-19.

He said: “I personally have got an issue with that (changing laws).

“If there is any risk whether you have changed the laws or not, then we should not be playing.”

World Rugby brought in the new laws this week, but stressed they will be at the discretion of individual unions based on the prevalence of the virus and government advice.

They were drawn up after an analysis of 60 matches by the governing body’s Law Review Group, which comprises coaches, players, match officials, medics and law specialists.

The group maintain the measures would reduce the risk of transmitting Covid-19 among players by 25 to 50 per cent, by lowering the incidence of contact or close proximity.

The trials include a free-kick to replace the resetting of a collapsed scrum when neither side is at fault, the ‘use it’ time at a ruck to be cut from five seconds to three, and no player joining a maul after it has started.

Smother tackles that brings players face to face would be called as a tackle instead of a maul, removing the scrum reward for the defending team.

World Rugby medics deemed props and second rows were most at risk, because scrum resets could take more than three minutes. The average time for the scrum during an 80 minute match was said to be more than 13 minutes.

World Rugby have also proposed an orange card should be introduced to punish high tackles, helping a referee unsure whether the challenge was bad enough to warrant a sending-off.

The offending player would be banished for 15 minutes, during which the television match official or citing officer would review the incident and, if it was deemed as only a penalty or a yellow-card, the player would be allowed to return.

“There are a couple of positives there, looking at the scrum, if we could put something in place longterm,” Davies told the BBC.

But he added: “I’m not a fan - I think it (changes) eats away at the integrity of the game.

“At the moment, our Union in Wales has no firm plans to implement them.”

England and New Zealand have also given a cool reception to the trials, even though they were recommended by medics.

“The Rugby Football Union has its own review under way looking at the options for a return to training and return to play rugby for clubs in England,” said a spokesperson.

And New Zealand, which has virtually eradicated coronavirus from its shores with just one person in a nation of around 5m people known to be still infected, will not be using the law amendments in their domestic version of Super Rugby starting next week.