Radical new laws have been brought in for this season's Super Rugby competitions.
The headline change sees the introduction of a 'captain's challenge' in New Zealand's Super Rugby Aotearoa, which will allow each team the chance to force the TMO to look at an incident the referee has missed or potentially got wrong.
The referral, similar to that used in other sports such as cricket, can be used for any incident in the build-up to a try (from the last restart) or an act of foul play.
In the final five minutes of a game, a captain can use the referral to challenge any decision at all made by the referee.
Each team will be allowed one referral in a match, which they will keep if they are proved correct.
The basics are:
The captain must make a referral within 10 seconds of a try being scored, a referee’s decision, or a stoppage in play.
The captain must be specific about what they are referring.
Anything referred must be ‘clear and obvious’ in the TMO’s review.
The captain cannot use his referral to stop play following a quick tap penalty or quick throw-in.
Scrum and lineout are not part of the referral process.
The other big change in New Zealand sees the introduction of a rugby league-style goal-line dropout.
This will be used to restart play when an attacking player carrying the ball is held up in the in-goal or knocks the ball on in the in-goal area, or when an attacking kick, other than a penalty or drop goal attempt, is grounded by the defending team in their in-goal area.
The idea is to reward attacking teams by allowing them to build pressure and to encourage defending teams to clear the ball from their in-goal area.
New Zealand's head of rugby performance, Mike Anthony, told Stuff : “If you didn’t make inroads they usually got a 22m drop-out and if you’ve got Jordie Barrett kicking it you’re back into a defensive game. So, in this way we think teams will carry the ball back and the attacking team is rewarded.
“The drop-out has been used successfully in league and we’ve brought it across to our game because we think it’s going to encourage more attacking rugby, but there will be some teething challenges along the way so we hope fans and everyone involved will support it and get behind and I’m sure we’ll adapt really quickly.”
The rule changes have been approved by World Rugby’s executive committee and follow the introduction of golden point and red card replacement laws in 2020, both of which will continue in 2021. Players and coaches were widely consulted on the the developments.
In Australia's Super Rugby AU competition, many of the changes brought in last year will continue, including the goal line drop-out, replacements for red-carded players after 20 minutes, as well as rewards for 50/22 and 22/50 kicks.
The 2021 Super Rugby AU season will see two further innovative law changes introduced, including the kick-off and restart variations seen in Rugby Sevens. For this season, a free kick will be awarded following any infringement off the kick-off and restart.
This includes an enforced 30 second time limit for restarts to happen following a conversion, penalty or drop goal as well as restarts that are kicked out on the full or if teammates of the kicker are not behind the ball.
The team that was set to receive the ball will get a tap from halfway. This law has been introduced to quicken up general game play and reduce unnecessary scrums.
A law introduced last year has also been tweaked for season 2021, with a drawn match now to be decided by ‘Golden Try’ in extra time.
