Not set in stone yet – the IRB have left it up to individual Unions to decide whether to impliment them or not, and they won’t be taking effect on the internetaional stage, yet, but the Internationa Rugby Board (IRB) have decided that the scrummaging laws need changing.
This looks to be continued fall out from the whole Dean Richards, fake blood, Harlequins saga (which I have so far dutifully ignored until something approaching the truth comes out – and I’m still not convinced we have it). The image of rugby has been tarnished and so the IRB want to be seen to be proactive, to come out and start cleaning up the name of the game again.
Uncontested Scrums
One of the areas that the IRB felt needed addressing was the scrummage. Now we all know that a huge amount of cheating goes on in the scrum – and if you don’t just ask any member of the famed ‘front row union’. But that is something of a cheats charter in there and, in the main, it works despite itself.
The area that needed addressing was dubious instances of scrums going uncontested, or teams bringing players back on for ‘injured’ players when it is obviously to gain an advantage or cancel out a weakness and nothing to do with injury. Who could forget the first British Lions test where John Smit, who had been subbed off earlier in the game, started warming up vigorously 5 minutes before he was brought on as an ‘injury replacement’ when the South Africans scrum was struggling.
So sensibly the IRB have put their heads together and come up with a way around it. Now I am not sure I have understood the complete wording of the new laws… but as far as I can see it doesn’t address the issue of teams bringing on players who have had a nice rest and are now ready to start propping again.
But it does address the issue of teams deciding to go uncontested. It has a couple of variant rules, for insisting on more front row players on teh bench and, more importantly, for dramatically handicapping a team that goes uncontested.
If a team has injuries to its front row and has no front rowers able to come on (including those already subbed off) then the scrums will still go uncontested BUT they will not be allowed ot bring on a replacement player – they will be down to 14 men.
This is interesting. It is something that needed addressing. My girlfriend is a Wasps season ticket holder (I know, poor me) so I have been paying them a bit more attention than I normally would since Christmas and I have to say they have used this trick on a couple of occassion sso it is good to see such a cheating tactic addressed. Australia in the past had been guilty of it and I am sure there are plenty of other teams that have done the same.
I am not 100% convinced its going to work, but its a good effort and a start in addressing some of the problem cheating that can go on in rugby. Could to see the IRB take a proactive response.
p.s. you can see the rule changes here, including a PDF showing the exact rules if you follow their link
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