Experimental laws

IRB call for experimental laws in Super 14 premature

IRB chairman Syd Millar has called for the use of rugby’s experimental laws in next year’s Super 14, but that call has come a little late for one Super 14 coach.

The World Cup final was an intriguing, tight but rather uninspiring contest. Remove the context of it being a World Cup final and many would have labelled the game boring. But right now defence wins championships, South Africa showed it in the World Cup, the Crusaders have shown it in Super 14 but that is something the IRB are keen to change, looking for a more open, attack focused game.

“Defences are on top at the moment,” said Millar after the final. “We need to free the game up a bit, make it easier to play, easier to referee, easier to understand and we have to produce more options for the players,” he added.

“We have asked the southern nations to try these new laws in the Super 14 which is near enough international level. Hopefully they will agree to that.”

But the call to use the new laws for the 2008 Super 14 came as a surprise to Chiefs coach Ian Foster. He said that lessons should be learned from the change to the scrum engagement process at the beginning of this year which he felt was rushed and produced more reset scrums, the exact opposite of its intention.

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