New Rules for Spectators or The Game?
To give the game a new face lift, to avoid boring lop-sided matches the IRB is all set to experiment with a new set of rules. The rules aim to make the game faster and keep all the rugby enthusiasts glued to the game. Actually, the IRB officials have been working on developing these rules ever since the Rugby World Cup in France in 2007. Most of the matches were rather too mundane and not many teams risked running into the deep and thus conceding crucial points to the opposition.
In order to deliver “knock out rugby” to the fans and to force players to run with the ball there are a set of three new rules implemented by the IRB. Following is a list…
1. Kicking directly out of play will result in a lineout from where you kicked it, regardless of whether the player was inside the 22 metre line, and regardless of whether that team played the ball back inside it or not. This excludes full penalties, in which case the current law still applies.
Fans will definitely like the idea, as it would make the game more aggressive. But the success of this initiative will depend on how the breakdown is policed because the players might not want to run the ball into contact from behind their own line.
2. The ball will no longer need to be fed into the middle of the scrum and ‘crooked’ feeds is also allowed.
Though scrums are a trademark of the game but they consume a lot of time because the scrums have to be reset again and again. With this rule the game can be restarted more quickly. But the game will lose the scrums as there will be no chance of the opposition winning the ball.
3. There will be a limit to how many times each player can kick the ball during a game – this will be set at 3 each for backs and 1 each for forwards to begin with, but could be adjusted easily at a later date.
This rule will in turn lead to the appointment of a ‘Kicking Official’ who will keep count of the number of kicks for each player. According to the IRB this rule will reduce unnecessary kicking to a large extent.
Hope these rules will alleviate the game to the next level and remove yawning crowds from the rugby field!