World Rugby is bringing out a simplified version of the game’s law book on New Year’s Day, ushering in 2018 by untangling the complex web of dos and don’ts so even the most casual TV viewer will have some idea of what is going on when the referee’s whistle is blown.
The law book is slimming down by 42% after a two-year process undertaken by an eight-strong working party which consulted every one of World Rugby’s 120 member unions and its six associations. It was decided early on that the laws were not the problem but the long-winded way in which they were written down with more subsections than a newspaper in the glory days of print.
The simplification, it is said, will make the laws easier to understand while not altering their meaning or affecting the way the game is played.
The Breakdown has been given a preview and is able to provide (tongue-in-cheek) examples of how the less prolix version reads …
Law 3: Definition. A team consists of 15 players. A substitute replaces a team-mate for tactical reasons. A replacement replaces a team-mate with a tactical injury.
3.3: A Union may authorise matches to be played with fewer than 15 players in each team. When that happens, all laws of the game must apply except the one that says a team must consist of 15 players.
5.1: Duration of a match. A match lasts no more than 80 minutes, plus time lost and the hours it takes for referrals to the television match official and reset scrums.
6.a.4: The referee is the sole judge of fact and of law during a match, until he or she consults the television match official.
8.2: Advantage. The advantage must be clear and real. A mere opportunity to gain advantage is not enough. If the non-offending team do not gain an advantage after 10 minutes or that team’s scrum-half demands a penalty, the referee blows the whistle and, if he or she remembers where it is, brings play back to the place of the infringement.
10.2.d: A player must not commit any act that may lead the match officials to consider that player was subject to foul play or any other infringement committed by an opponent. So if a player is punched, he or she must not go to ground and must hide any bleeding.
10.3.1: A player must not repeatedly infringe any law. Repeated infringement is a matter of fact based on opinion. The question of whether the player intended to infringe is irrelevant because none of them knows the laws.
10.4.c: A player must not deliberately kick an opponent. Claiming to mistake a bald head for the ball is not an excuse that will be accepted by a disciplinary panel.
10.4.h: A player must not charge into a ruck or a maul unless his team are in possession.
10.4.k: Players must not intentionally collapse a scrum, ruck or maul by accident.
10.4.1: A player must not retaliate unless he or she does so first.
11.1: General play. A player is offside when he or she is not onside. Loitering without intent is no excuse. A player who is in an offside position is not automatically penalised but always is.
12.1.f: Intentional knock or throw forward: A player must not deliberately knock the ball forward with hand or arm. Hands or arms are another matter.
16: Ruck: Definition: A ruck is a phase of play where one or more players from each team, who are on their feet, in physical contact, close around the ball on the ground and then fall on it.
16.7.c: When the ball has been clearly won by a team at a ruck and the ball is available to be played, the referee will call “Use it” after which the ball must be played within five seconds. No extra time is allowed for players who do not understand English.
17.2.6: Placing a hand on another player in the maul does not constitute binding but this law is not often binding.
18: Definition: To make a mark, a player must make a clean catch from an opponent’s kick and do so with his mouth open.
19.7.c: A player must not intentionally or repeatedly throw the ball into a lineout not straight. The definition of not straight is not patently crooked. If the ball goes straight to the thrower’s scrum-half, the non-offending team shall be awarded a scrum when it will be allowed to put in the ball crookedly.
20.5: Throwing the ball into the scrum: The scrum-half must throw the ball in straight – straight to his or her No8 so there is every chance of getting the ball away quickly with the referee not having to worry about a reset.
20.12.b: Offside at the scrum: When a team have won the ball in a scrum, the scrum-half of that team is offside if both feet are in front of the ball while it is still in the scrum. If the scrum-half has only one foot in front of the ball, he is half off and half on.
21.3.c: Penalty and free-kicks: The kicker must use the ball that was in play unless the referee decides that he or she is defective.
Bill Beaumont, the World Rugby chairman, reckons the slimline law book will make rugby union easier to understand: “The laws can be difficult for new participants and fans and the new law book goes a long way towards simplifying it as we continue to strive to make the sport accessible to all,” he said.
Happy reading and new year.
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