New Law Changes 2012

The International Rugby Board announced some time ago several changes to the Laws of the Game.  Unlike some sports that merely have rules, rugby follows laws and publishes its own law book.  Maybe it's just semantics, but laws seem to hold a higher purpose and significance.

Most of the law changes for this year are obscure, minor tweeks, and won't be of much impact at the high school level.

One is a major change.  In an attempt, in our opinion, to improve the spectacle of rugby at the highest level, the scrum cadence has been shortened.  Finding there were a lot of scrum collapses, early engagements, and resets at the professional and international level, the IRB Laws altered the cadence.  Scrums were taking a long time to be played, and completed successfully and that wasn't good for television ratings!  The ammended scrum engagement law now reads:

"The referee will call “crouch” then “touch”. The front rows crouch and using their outside arm; each prop touches the point of the opposing prop’s outside shoulder. The props then withdraw their arms. The referee will then call “set” when the front rows are ready. The front rows may then engage. The “set” call is not a command but an indication that the front rows may come together when ready."

How this will be refereed at the local level remains to be seen.  Coaches and referee representatives are busy discussing the changes to ensure scrums continue to be safe at the local level.  In our own observation, and many coaches we think would agree, when refs call "crouch" under the old four-part cadence, almost all scrummagers are already crouched.  Some would say there is an unneccessary step in the cadence.  This probably serves as notice to players to "get ready" more than actually serving as a command to crouch and is more beneficial than some give credit for.  This step remains.   Perhaps serving a similar purpose as the "pause" did in the old cadence ... to focus the attention of scrummagers prior to engaging. 

We think the main difference in the cadences is that "engage" in the old system had two syllables ... most teams were taught to engage on "en", the first syllable, thinking they might gain an advantage by getting going first.  Now, with a one syllable engage call, "set", this will hopefully clean up the timing of both teams scrums and ensure teams safely engage at the same time.

Other changes of note:

1) A knock-on that goes into touch may be taken as a lineout or a scrum.  This choice gives a team that gained advantage a tactical choice and helps get more lineouts in low level games.  Hurray!


2)  Secondly, in the same situation where a knock-in goes out of bounds, the team gaining the advantage may take a quick throw-in where the knock-on went out of bounds!  Another subtle change in the law to help keep the game moving.