Rainbow Cup guinea pigs trial new law variations

THE Rainbow Cup will be used to trial red card replacements, captain's challenge and goalline drop-outs.

The Dragons get the new tournament under way against the Scarlets next weekend and they will have to get to grips with three law variations.

The Cup will mirror Super Rugby in experimenting with changing red cards from a dismissal to a 20-minute spell off the field, with teams then allowed to replace the offender with one of their substitutes.

Captains will also be given one challenge per match to review tryscoring and foul-play incidents, with the scope to look at any of the referee’s decisions in the last five minutes.

The skipper will have to make the challenge within 20 seconds of the whistle being blown for a stoppage. Scrum and lineout penalties cannot be referred.

Teams will keep their challenge if successful with captains having to reference specific incidents or infringements, with the emphasis on an error being clear and obvious.

The final change will see drop-outs from the goalline for held-up over the line, knock-ons that occur in goal or when the ball is grounded by a defending player in the in-goal area after a kick through.

World Rugby chief executive Alan Gilpin said: “The addition of another top competition to the World Rugby law trials programme will provide invaluable data and feedback to determine future advances to game spectacle and player welfare.”