Brian Moore

New laws already making for better games

Premiership fans keenly anticipated the new season and its first round did not disappoint. Most squads were improved by new signings and, encouragingly, it was clear the new law trials will aid the flow of the game, if they are officiated properly.

First-game performances are often uneven, especially if sides have lots of players returning from tours as enforced periods of rest restrict their pre-season work. Inevitably, some teams like Northampton, Harlequins and Worcester, looked rusty but others were remarkably fluent including, ominously, Saracens.

That said, there was sufficient evidence this could be one of the most competitive seasons ever, with nearly every coach making the point that, on its day, any team could beat any other.

The new breakdown law trials, which prevent tacklers playing the ball from the opposition side of the ruck and provide an earlier offside line when only one player is over the ball, had a noticeable effect.

Sides are going to have to work harder in defence to slow down ball and win turn-overs, although one way to do this is by stopping runners on the gain line and putting more defenders into breakdowns, as London Irish did so effectively against Quins.

There was an even more noticeable improvement in the scrums, with far fewer resets and penalties. This has been the one area in rugby that has regressed in terms of its appeal to spectators and the reasons for this need to be noted, especially by officials.

The scrum-half can now stand closer to his side, from which he should put the ball in straight, with one of the front row, invariably the hooker, mandated to strike for the ball.

When a hooker is forced to hook the ball properly, it means his pack want the scrum stationary because it is difficult, if not impossible, to strike when it is not. This makes it easier to spot which side is collapsing or moving a scrum early.

Also, when the ball is properly hooked, it reaches the back of the scrum quicker and is available to play. Nearly every time this was done properly, the ball was back in play quicker, without resets or penalties. It made games so much better.

It is important officials do not progressively relax their attention to the new scrum law trials because what they do is make the competition between packs one of shove or strike against strike.

The key work here is strike. Any sensible definition of that word must mean a movement of the foot attempting to hook the ball backwards, it does not mean the ball striking a stationary foot.

If law makers had meant to include this in the definition they would have said ‘the ball must make contact with the foot of any front row player.’

If referees allow the ball to be fed into the second row or allow it to be fed onto a stationary foot it will revert to a shove against shove contest.

What was clear and obvious from many years of such contests is that they make scrums inherently unstable; they collapse more often and the ball gets stuck. Though scrums were improved, we know that elite referees have a history of reneging on good starts and if they allow packs to flout the new laws they will be responsible for the consequences.

Obviously, you can only make limited predictions from one set of matches but there are still things of which you can be confident. Saracens are again going to be one of, if not the, team to beat. Their fluency, accuracy and overall flexibility, when added to their squad depth, is a potent combination and they were every bit as good as Northampton were poor.

Saints’ performance was one that gets coaches sacked and the head and assistant coach, Jim Mallinder and Dorian West, must demand and effect an immediate response from their players to avoid being under inordinate pressure for the rest of the season.

Elsewhere, Newcastle maintained their steady improvement under Dean Richards.

Wasps, like last season, showed their power in attack and vulnerability in defence against Sale.

London Irish did not look like a newly-promoted team in their win against Quins and this puts the focus on Worcester to improve.

Gloucester beat defending champions Exeter in the sort of game that they, hitherto, found a way to lose.

To round off the weekend, Bath did a job on Leicester but Manu Tuilagi is back and for England’s sake, let’s hope he says fit.

It was a great start and this season is the one for players to put themselves at the forefront of Eddie Jones’ mind. Any player has time to make the World Cup squad and there are many who can yet still push themselves into the squad.