New rugby rules aimed at speeding up play

….and incidentally limiting the water carrier’s access:

World Rugby has announced a host of directives for 2023 in a bid to speed up the game and make it more entertaining.

The law applications will be in force across the game from January 1, and World Rugby say they are "designed to support a quicker, more entertaining game while balancing safety and spectacle".

The use of a countdown shot clock, displayed on the big screens, will also be encouraged during competitions to persuade teams to restart or take a kick within the allotted time with greater urgency.

With the Rugby World Cup in France just nine months away, the guidelines - designed to help match officials, players and coaches - come off the back of consistent criticism that there are too many breaks in play in elite rugby and a broad acknowledgement that the sport needs to attract new fans.

World Rugby chairman Sir Bill Beaumont said: “As a sport, a movement and a family, we must always challenge ourselves to be better. That means taking time to consider what fans and players want the future of our sport to be, a future where more people want to play and support the game, where injury risk is reducing and where all involved in the game have their say."

Speeding up the game

Players and match officials are reminded of the following existing laws which World Rugby say must be strictly adhered to:

• Conversion. [The kicker] takes the kick within 90 seconds (playing time) from the time the try was awarded, even if the ball rolls over and has to be placed again. Sanction: Kick is disallowed.
• Penalty Kick: The kick must be taken within 60 seconds (playing time) from the time the team indicated their intention to do so, even if the ball rolls over and has to be placed again. Sanction: Kick is disallowed and a scrum is awarded.
• A player must not waste time. Sanction Free Kick
• Lineout: Teams form the lineout without delay. Sanction: Free-kick.
• Scrum: Teams must be ready to form the scrum within 30 seconds of the mark being made. Sanction: Free-kick.

World Rugby say the whole sport is encouraged to apply these guidelines to speed up the game, and elite matches competitions will be encouraged to use a shot clock as trialled in the LNR/ FFR competitions when practically possible. A clock for kicks at goal is already in operation in France's Top 14. 

World Rugby director of rugby Phil Davies said: “World Rugby, member unions and competitions will work with broadcasters and match hosts to implement on-screen (stadia and broadcast) shot clocks for penalties and conversions to ensure referees, players and fans can view the countdown, mirroring what happens in the LNR and Sevens."

Cutting reliance on TMO reviews

Match officials are being reminded that the current TMO protocol is aimed at identifying and ensuring clear and obvious offences are dealt with on-field, with lengthy reviews indicating an offence may not be obvious.

Davies added: “There was excellent debate at the Shape of the Game conference on this topic, including leading match officials, coaches and player representatives. It was agreed that reviews can often take too long, suggesting the offence being reviewed is not clear and obvious. While we can always enhance the technology interaction to speed up the process, the match official teams – led by the referee - should attempt to make speedier decisions and limit replays where not necessary.”

Fewer water carrier interventions

Water will be able to be taken onto the field when a try is scored.

While the global law trial on limiting the number of water carriers to two, and reducing the times they enter the field, has reduced unnecessary stoppages, World Rugby say creating set windows for water breaks has created the impression of disrupting the game, even if that water was taken during a natural stoppage (try/injury/TMO review).

Davies added: “Following discussions with stakeholders, an amendment to the current global law trial covering water carriers will allow water onto the field when a try is scored. Participating competitions and unions are reminded of the 60/90 second limits on kick times. Only in a game with no tries, should a natural stoppage be used."

Penalising negative player actions

Referees will be asked to be strong on negative player actions like trapping players into ruck, and jackallers not aiming to play the ball.

A statement says: "Players are reminded about their responsibilities not to hold the ball or walk off with the ball at penalties – this reduces attacking options by the non-offending team and slows the game down unnecessarily and will be sanctioned."

Smartly world rugby has stepped away from the concept of being right at the expense of rugby as a continuous game. They are saying if the incident isn’t immediately obvious on review, the ref should move on. 

Often the incident is immediately obvious on the first replay, but then the officials still watch 2 or 3 minutes of replays before making a decision.

Scrum resets also take up an enormous amount of time. Not sure how to address that. A one reset, then free kick won't work because it's something that can be gamed by a weaker scrumming side for an advantage.

I absolutely detest this desire for continuous non-stop action. It isn't necessary. Stopping loafers from idling to set pieces and setting up is good, but the kicks... I don't like it, as it is not a problem. Pauses and breaks can add suspense. This need for mindless aesthetics is a disease throughout the entertainment industry as a whole and reflective of a culture that is intellectually deficient to the point where it doesn't like to think about anything. As if a moments break might cause them the great offence of having to consider reality and having "to adult". The sporting world as a whole has become awful, there's almost nothing of any quality anymore, and the sportsmen themselves are narcissistic celeb wannabees with no character and no gentlemanly conduct. 

Fair enough…I rarely have a problem with the kicks. Except occasionally you do wonder if Johnny Sexton has had a seizure when he contemplates the ball for a minute. 

The scrums were much better in the old days without the hit and with the put the ball in straight rule. Anything that stops the tedious technical coaching would be a relief.

As far as TMO decisions are concerned I think  these rules are encouraging the TMO to make a decision and not be intimidated by the postmortems by Harrassmiss whose antics added minutes of dead legal processing time. 

Correction calls in the gray area that may have gone against the Boks were highlighted by Harrassmiss….he apparently has no problem with the other calls against the opponents.

If Rassie wanted to make an emphatic case against refs, he'd have spliced clips of all those moments the Bok's opposition were the victims of a hack job in every test since 2019. 

Yes there is some bull to this shit, and our opponents are missing an opportunity to really rub fat Erasmus' nose in it! "Fair reffing" and we lose the Lions series, one Argie test, the Wales EOYT in 2021. This year, we lose another Welsh test, both All Black tests, potentially both Wallaby tests and the England test. Bad coaching hiding behind an excuse that doesn't hold up to scrutiny. Were this 2011 to 2014, I'd say he has a case, but since that time, the Boks are by far the least penalised top tier rugby nation. 

At last.

Any move to speed up the game time will be an improvement to the game.

Time wasted at lineouts, forming the scrum plus the time to take a kick are all issue of time wasted.

In addition I would also suggest that all free kicks taken should be taken from the mark indicated by the ref and not one or two meters beyond the mark.

Plus players holding onto a ball after in has gone into touch or a free kick is awarded and then throwing it away is another issue that they have finally covered.

There's too much mindless frantic running. We need to return to the arranged lines pre-ELVs we're clever lines of running and close quarter skills thrived. Now, these dopey multi-layers where every team looks the same, aside from the archaic and even more mindless Boks. We are witnessing the final nail in the coffin of rugby union. 

Actually Plum when I did my Mozcroscope on the test Harrassmiss taped I pretty much concluded reffing is an art not a science. The majority of calls that Erasmus said were wrong could easily have been said to be right. 

Often it’s blatant….the tackle was late, But just as often it’s in the gray area.

Some things can be fixed by technology…the forward pass. With chips on the ball and players….an algorithm should be able to make the projections and give an instant assessment. Refs are all over the place on this one.

For the stuff that’s in the gray area, I like a ref who is consistent, not influenced by crowd noise, in synch with the players….and who lets the game flow.

In an incredibly complex game like rugby, that’s the best we can hope for.

Pl um

You must be careful when it comes to Mozart's Mozroscopes - he used to publish on site - but the way he described incidents was so prejudiced that you would never recognize what really happened during matches.   He used to write some of those on site - and it was total BS and was definitely not what happened during games.    In the end he stopped publish the garbage on site.      

My word you really are a tiresome fool. You never rise above the petty and the spiteful. I will never put anything misleading in any analysis I do it’s against my principles. Opinions may differ, but facts are indisputable.

I see that those who are calling other members stupid and/or liars are the very same people who are routinely set straight on basic facts as well as more complex matters. Very loose with the truth are these precious little dears. 

Plum

Like in the case of many posters with whom I differ - I met Dave and like him as a person.   I really regard him and Denny as friends.

I lost interest in the site totally because of the garbage that some people spread on site and was then approached by Denny to come back on site.  So ws anything new when I returned to the site?   I am afraid nothing.

An entirely new aspect came up and that was the slavish adoration of aged players and the attacks on younger players were endemic and those attacks have been unchanged since 1994.   When Dave or anybody for that matter talk favorably of younger players - the floodgates opened and now we have a situation where those attacks became the norm even ten years later.  

One other member I now call l'Grande Merde (the Great Shit) had about 12 different usar name.   When he has been embarrassed totally and expose as writing super shit on site - his solution has been and still is to change his user name and start spreading more BS - never changing his tune - but just repeat this previous BS.   It takes me about 10 minutes to realize his new name is here,                  

Clever nobody on  here was posting in 1994 you stupid fool. You are a pompous liar, self promoter and moron….your presence on the site is welcome though for unintended humour, nothing more.

Mozart's analysis is how to discover reasons to attack certain players and Erasmus - so his analysis is always based on what he believes would discredit his pet hate players.   As such his analysis is always flawed and total garbage.    He would make up something and then start an attack based on his "findings".   A typical example is to find a try-scoring opportunity when there was nothing of the sort.