Further law changes would be ‘madness’, says Baxter

Rob Baxter, the Exeter director of rugby, has criticised World Rugby’s proposal for further law changes to attract new fans as “madness”.

Last month, the governing body announced a tranche of law amendments, to be voted on by World Rugby’s council in May, in its plan to speed up the game. They included 20-minute red cards, the abolition of a scrum option from a free-kick and the closing of the “Dupont’s law” offside loophole.

The plans also involve a specialist working group examining the results of the community tackleheight trials across 11 unions and their “appropriateness for elite rugby”.

“We’re trying to grow the game and there’s no sport that tries to grow by confusing new supporters every 12 months,” Baxter said.

“We need to stop changing the laws. The game was fine three or four years ago – and we didn’t need to change it then. Ninety per cent of what we do in the law changes is to redo things that have been created by other law changes. It’s madness.

“You grow the game by introducing new players and people to it, but we’re confusing new people by changing laws and interpretations.

“If they decide to make law changes then they have to put a moratorium on not changing them any more. Let’s get on with it. Now, it feels like some of the kick stuff they’re looking to introduce is almost to counteract what they brought in with the 50:22.”

World Rugby plans to encourage individual unions and competitions to implement closed trials of certain law variations “aimed at enhancing game continuity”. They include a scrum and line-out shot clock, the ability to call a mark from a restart and forcing scrum-halves to play the ball at mauls after one stoppage, rather than two.

Baxter hopes they do not reach the Premiership, saying: “They’re [already] reinforcing two or three things to let the game keep flowing – we don’t need to do any more than that. The more you de-power the scrum and maul, the more you’re going to create a game that people are not going to want to watch – because there’ll be no space.”