Dad’s Army given the hurry up in America

IS it me or is there a delicious irony over in the USA where the always innovative MLR has introduced a raft of measures aimed at speeding up the game while at the same time recruiting a raft of creaking ‘Dad’s Army’ types to bolster their sides.

Aussies Matt Giteau, Adam Ashley-Cooper and Dave Dennis have washed into Los Angeles along with veteran Canada wing DTH Van der Merwe – talk about getting the band back together – while Chris Robshaw is at San Diego although he remains banned until next week after his Barbarians escapades ten months ago.

Samu Manoa and Japanese try-scoring machine Akihito Yamada have both come out of retirement at Seattle while Tonga’s long time goal kicker and fly-half Kurth Morath is at Austin and Ben Foden continues to play for New York. The talented Argentina fullback Joaquim Tucelet is also playing for Toronto although at just 31 he seems like the apprentice in such company.

Imagine their delight when they learned the MLR, which got under way last week, has agreed with World Rugby to trial a few measures aimed at speeding the game up and increasing the ball in play time.

For this season goalkickers will be allowed 60 seconds and not 90 seconds for conversions and penalties while – as per a penalty try – no conversion will be required for a try scored under or by the posts. The extra two points will automatically be added and play will go straight to the restart.

And ageing props looking for a final pay day be warned. For this season anyway there will never be more than one reset. If a satisfactory scrum does not materialise after the first reset somebody will get penalised! Good luck with that gents.

The MLR are also experimenting with a local red card regulation whereby the player dismissed can be replaced after 20 minutes which seems like a reasonable compromise but let’s see how it works out. Changes to rugby regulations, as we know, have a habit of producing unintended consequences.