Changes will make it safer
PAUL REES looks at this season’s law trials and explains the thinking behind them
TThe law trials that will feature in the European leagues this season are not expected to lead to an increase in the time taken up with television match officials referrals.
Some matches this year have lasted more than two hours and the Lions series in South Africa was largely stopstart with the TMO more involved than the two sets of backs and some coaches are concerned the trials, especially the one governing latching, as well as a crackdown on illegal clear-outs of a jackaller will lead to more referrals.
The RFU believes most incidents will be clear and obvious and picked up by the match officials at the time with the TMO chiming in if they pick up something that was missed.
The three trials, which will run for the season before World Rugby decides whether any or all of them should become part of the laws, involve indirect kicks into touch in the opposition 22 from a team’s own half provided the ball was not taken back over the halfway line in that move, goal-line drop-outs if an attacking team is held up over the line and only one player allowed to latch on to a ball carrier.
In addition, players who target the lower limbs of a jackaller will be penalised and face being sent to the sin-bin with Twickenham this season planning to crack down on players who enter a ruck from the side. Pods of three or more players who are bound together before receiving the ball will be penalised.
The changes have been made with player welfare as the primary concern. The aim of the 50:22 trial, which will give a team an attacking line-out if it finds touch indirectly from a kick in its own half, is to force defenders to drop back and create more space out wide.
The goal-line drop-out is designed to encourage teams not to constantly pick and go a few metres from the line, knowing that if they get over it without being awarded a try, they will not receive a scrum. They will also be aware of the new latching rule because if someone binds legally on to a ball carrier but falls to ground before the line is reached and is deemed to be stopping the defending side competing for the ball, a penalty will be awarded.
If the latcher makes it over the line with the carrier and then goes to ground, there will be no penalty, even if the ball is not grounded, and the defending team will be awarded a goal-line drop-out. Twickenham held a media briefing last week to explain how the changes would be enforced, stressing that the trials were not the result of pressure from referees but the outcome of discussions by World Rugby’s law review group with coaches such as England’s Eddie Jones and New Zealand’s Ian Foster having input through the breakdown working group. The discussions were driven by the former Ireland head coach Joe Schmidt, below, who has been World Rugby’s director of rugby and high performance since the beginning of last year, a post he is relinquishing at the end of the year although he will continue to remain on the laws review group.
The changes relating to a latcher and clear-outs on jackallers are likely to see an increase in penalties in the opening rounds as coaches and players adjust to the new laws, but referees have been working with clubs during the close season and do not anticipate major problems.
The greater protection for jackallers was prompted by the injury which England and Wasps flanker Jack Willis suffered against Italy in this year’s Six Nations when he was on his feet at a ruck and taken out low by Sebastian Negri, twisting in the challenge and damaging knee ligaments.
The law emphasis now will be that a player who does not have possession of the ball cannot be taken out by what is effectively a challenge below the waist, only driven backwards in the act of an opponent rucking over the ball.
If Negri repeats the crocodile roll he used on Willis, who is expected to be out of action until the end of the year, he can expect to be sent off given the injury that resulted from his challenge. Twickenham said Premiership coaches welcomed the greater clarity on clear-outs and latching, but whether the game opens out more as a result of the trials remains to be seen.
The 50:22 change may be regarded by some as an opportunity to launch rolling mauls from line-outs, but if they get over the line and do not ground the ball, they will lose possession.
“Law review is fundamental to a sport that is constantly evolving and at the heart of our aspiration to make rugby as safe and accessible as possible,” said Schmidt. “The process has been truly collaborative, bringing together coaching, playing, officiating, law and medical experts to consider the future playing of the sport.”
World Rugby has started a study looking at the impact of replacements on injury risk with calls for the number of players on the bench to be reduced as well as what it calls a ground-breaking study into the frequency and nature of head impacts in community rugby.