Tweaked laws just as bewildering
Anything to make rugby easier to comprehend gets my vote but the latest proclamation from World Rugby fails to deliver that.
They want to give spectators and players sharper rules to counter the confusion but that black and white objective has churned out further cloudy disarray.
Take the ruck, that complex phase of play where bodies arrive to hunt the ball and all sorts of issues apply about offside, use of the hands or feet, taking players out off the ball, the rights of the first tackler, the definition of the “gate”, where the last feet are and which amendment the referee checked before he took the field.
Since rucking became like leprosy, the breakdown has disintegrated into a perplexing shambles but World Rugby offered hopes about a solution with their work on the issue since the last global tournament.
Forget it. Coaches and specialist staff will be in the ballpark but the rest of us might as well be watching a roulette wheel again.
Six changes to the scrum, tackle/ ruck laws “aimed at making the game simpler to play and referee, as well as further protecting player welfare” will be assessed from August in the north, then Down Under from the start of next year.
The amended law 16 says: A ruck commences when at least one player is on their feet and over the ball which is on the ground ( tackled player, tackler). At this point, the offside lines are created. Players on their feet may use their hands to pick up the ball as long as this is immediate. As soon as an opposition player arrives, no hands can be used.
How on earth will that edict make rugby more “simple” to understand and play, as World Rugby chairman Bill Beaumont declared.
There are other amendments about putting the ball into the scrum, striking for the ball, handling the ball in the scrum, but the ruck and offside lines are the greatest grievances.
Take one part of the ruck revision where players on their feet can use hands to attack the ball immediately until an opposition player arrives when hands are banned.
Are the referees going to have a stopwatch and access to photo- finish camera assistance? Will unsighted touch judges be issued with laser theodolites? How long can the tackled player hold the ball? Is he allowed one or more forward rolls? And is the offside line through the middle or last side of the rugby ball?
The trial ruck laws don’t need months of appraisal, they will be as perplexing as the current regulations, and World Rugby will stay in the sinbin until they come up with something sustainably simpler.