The worldwide trial of the Experimental Law Variations (ELVs) is now underway. The 12-month trial, across all levels of the game, will concern 13 experimental laws that were approved by IRB Council at its April meeting in Dublin.
The ELVs introduced include players not allowed to kick directly into touch from their own 22 if they take the ball back into the 22, defending teams being able to legally collapse a maul, and the backline having to stand five metres behind the feet of their number 8 at a scrum in attack and defence.
There are also a number of lineout changes, including no limit on player numbers, while touch judges now become known as assistant referees and can help the main match official in any way required.
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The ELVs have been extensively trialled at all levels of the game over the past two years in both hemispheres, with high profile trials taking place in SANZAR’s showpiece provincial competition the Super 14 and also the current Tri Nations series.
Due to the fact that the southern hemisphere season commenced in February there are some southern tournaments, including the Tri Nations, that are trialling more than the 13 ELVs that have been approved for global trials from August 1.
As a result, special dispensation has been given to the southern hemisphere Unions to continue the more extensive ELV trials that are already in place.
The spotlight will be firmly centred on the northern hemisphere over the next couple of weeks as players and coaches from the top domestic competitions in Europe adjust to life under the ELVs for the first time. Already several top players and coaches have endorsed the experimental laws and are excited about the challenges that they bring.
Positive feedback
This comes as no surprise for Rod Macqueen, the former Australia World Cup-winning coach and now a member of the IRB’s Laws Project Group working on the ELVs, and who has been watching with keen interest their implementation in competitions such as the Currie Cup and Super 14.
“The player feedback is very positive and after all that is what the game is all about. I think in every area that these ELVs have been played there has been a positive response,” Macqueen told Total Rugby.
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“Certainly that is a good start is what I would say, I don't think it’s the final chapter by any means but certainly a good start because it says that some of those things are working.”
There has been conjecture in some rugby circles as to why the Experimental Law Variations have been developed, but Macqueen rubbishes suggestions that they were developed as a means of speeding up the game.
“The people that are saying the ELVs are designed to make the game faster etc, that was never the case, that has never been part of the criteria. The criteria has always been to make sure that we kept it a game for all shapes and sizes, but try and make it simpler and in a lot of ways bring it back to the game we used to have when there was actually more space on the field and more breaks to be able to come about.
“In fact the game that we have got today, that we saw in the World Cup, under the current laws is quite different to what the game was like 20 years ago. In fact dramatically different.”
