World Rugby have unveiled a host of new law changes that will be trialled in competitions across the world in 2015/2016, some of which are already taking effect in Australia’s National Rugby Championship, and Wales’ Principality Premiership.
The changes will also be trialled in World Rugby’s Pacific Challenge, U20 Trophy, Tbilisi Cup and Nations Cup in 2016, as well as a host of other domestic competitions, the full list of which will be released soon.
Here are some of the most radical proposed changes:
– Points values: A try would be worth six points and a penalty would be worth just two, the idea being that it will encourage teams to push on for tries, rather than take the points from a penalty. A conversion will remain as two points.
– Time considerations: If a team wins a penalty or free kick after the 80 minutes is up and kick it to touch, the line-out will be played and the game will be over when the ball goes dead again.
– Uncontested scrums: If, due to injury or a sending-off, a team cannot put out a full front row, they are still obliged to put eight players in the uncontested scrum (rather than just seven and have an extra back)
– Kick-offs: Kick-offs that go out on the full will be penalised by a free kick from the centre of the pitch, but a scrum cannot be taken
The full list of law changes can be found in the PDF in this article.
What do you think of the changes? Which ones would you like to see carried forward into rugby law for all parts of the game?
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Don’t like the idea of changing the points values as stated. As all values would be a multiple of 2, there’s more chance of ending up in tied games. As it stands, with tries at 5pt and Penalties at 3, mathematically it’s harder to end up with tied score scenarios.
Oh, and I like the change about the scrum bind in the linked article (Crouch means Front Rows are in full contact with each other but supporting own weight, Bind is when the pressure is applied.). Takes away the “Hit” that has *never* been a part of the Laws.
Interesting point regarding tied games, I hadn’t really considered this when this was mentioned before.
In general I’m happy with increasing the points for a try but not so keen on the reduction of penalties.
It doesn’t mention drop goals have these been reduced also as they would make for a good way of encouraging a last gasp steal of the game by 1 point if they remain worth 3
Don’t like the points thing. Will lead to more cynical penalties in the red zone as teams are happy to concede penalties over tries.
The others are all good and sensibleish. Could be some grandstand finishes if a team trailing by 4 gets a penalty on the halfway line. Before they had to tap, now they can push it in the corner.
The “time considerations” is brought about by the scrum being a mess. Nothing wrong with having the scrum if the scrums were clean, but as they’re such a mess now you could kick off out on the fall and the game wouldn’t actually start until the fifth minute!
The uncontested scrum one makes sense. If you force uncontested scrums and you’re under your own posts, you shouldn’t just be able to drop out your back row.
I’m quite positive on these changes overall. I don’t like the idea of never having a 1 point game, i.e. the drama of a last minute penalty or drop goal snatching a last gasp victory. Maybe 5pt try and 3pt conversion or 7pt try and 1pt version, Keep a converted try worth 4 penalties but also keep more possibilities open.
But in general less reset scrums (and less time setting up scrums) along with less goal kicking = more ball in play. More ball in play means more emphasis on fitness which will hopefully keep a check on the rate that players are growing. Particularly for age group rugby.
Fewer reset scrums.
With regards to scoring: The balance seems to be between making tries more valuable to encourage attacking play but not devaluing penalties to the point that a team is happy to concede a penalty in their own red zone to prevent any opportunity for a try. In order to do this, surely adding one extra point onto a try but keeping penalties the same – i.e. 6+2 and 3 will encourage this? In the short term there may be no visible effect but in the long term it is surely a positive as teams which score lots of tries are rewarded more for it?
I like the start kick that goes straight into touch, the a free kick is give instead of a scrum on the center spot. I would like to see the rule changed, when a penalty is given and a quick tap is taken then the opposing team should not be penalized if they are not 10 meters away. If you take a quick tap it allows the opposing team to defend immediately
, especially when its near the try line.
I agree about the kick straight into touch, but I’ve no idea why you’d have a free-kick without the option of a scrum – that seems very strange to me.
I think if the laws were changed as you describe for quick taps we’d see far fewer quick taps!
Re the new points system, Total Flanker made an interesting observation:
“My guess is that this is likely to result in more penalties being kicked to touch and more driving mauls from lineouts in the opposition 22.
Whether that’s a good thing or not is debateable.”
Might I suggest that if WR want to see more “exciting” and attacking rugby (which to me does not necessarily equate to more tries) that they direct referees to err in favour of the attacking side (as it always used to be). Thus might go some way to redressing the recent dominance of defence in test rugby. Sometimes it seems as if refs are trying to find a reason not to award a try.
Better observance of the offside line with rush defences would also be good.
I also noted on a recent viewing of a match in the 1991 wc that the side in possession got the put in if a maul went to ground.
Don’t like the scoring change for the reasons outlined above. The kick straight into touch being a free kick is straight from Sevens and not a bad idea. The eight man uncontested scrum is long overdue, and stops the side without a prop from negating an advantage they shouldn’t have on their put in of level numbers in the backs.
Points value – They need changing, but I wouldn’t change the value of penalties unless try value stays the same. Either 6 for a try, 3 for a penalty or 5 try 2 penalty. As others have said we need to keep it possible for a 1 point win. Drop goals should stay at 3 as more effort by the team is required than a penalty kick.
Time considerations – Slightly good idea. But what happens if a team is winning by a couple points, wins a penalty and kicks to touch. Would the ref call time or force them to have a line out which they could lose?
Uncontested scrums – I didn’t realise teams could reduce the amount of players in the scrum. Since it appears they can this makes a lot of sense.
Kick off – I see the point in this as why should the defending team be penalised for something that’s not their fault. However, I think they should still be allowed to have a scrum. Part of having a scrum is to get the forwards out the way so the backs have more space to run.
Another change I would like to see is a maximum number of players in front of the ball at a maul. As things stand, how can a team legally defend a maul when the attacking team has 8 players in front of the ball.
I would assume that if a team was winning by a couple of points and were awarded a penalty they could just take a tap and kick to touch from that?
My biggest problem with the points totals is that if they are intended to create more attacking rugby and more tries, which isn’t necessarily a good thing, then they should address that at the breakdown and offsides not by making arbitrary changes in the points. I think this has started to happen this WC where the offside is being enforced better. Rugby doesn’t need to descend to 35-34 games to be exciting, some of the best games have been low scoring defensive affairs.
We are seeing 8 point tries and 2 point penalty Goals in the Australian NRC in 2015. Only one penalty goal in four rounds rugby. Its been a very exciting competition so far.