Former international referee Jaco Peyper predicts that some of the Super Rugby Pacific trials will not have their desired positive impact but a negative one instead.<\/p>\n
On Monday, the tournament announced that measures have been put in place to reduce stoppages, inspire positive play and simplify the officiating of the game through the introduction of further law trials.<\/p>\n
In a bid to limit the amount of scrums in the game, accidental offsides and teams delaying playing the ball away from a ruck will now result in free-kicks rather than scrums \u2013 a reminder that teams can no longer opt for a scrum from a free-kick.<\/p>\n
Additionally, players will be allowed to take quick taps within one metre either side of the mark, or anywhere behind the mark, if they are within that two-metre channel running parallel to the touchlines.<\/p>\n
These tweaks to the lawbook are supposed to speed up the game, increase the ball in play time and limit the amount of dead time in matches.<\/p>\n
Super Rugby law trials<\/p>\n
However, Springboks<\/a> assistant coach Felix Jones is anxious about the trials that are being conducted and what impact they will have on scrums.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m aware that Super Rugby<\/a> are going to trial some laws, which is their right in their competition, it\u2019s great to see people trying innovative things, but I have a nervousness about this\u2026 there are some fundamental changes here,\u201d he said on the Rassie+ podcast<\/a> before asking Peyper<\/a> to weigh in.<\/p>\n The former referee, who is now SA Rugby\u2019s national laws advisor, says that in his experience, free-kicks usually slow down the game instead of speeding it up, particularly if the team that has been awarded the free-kick aren\u2019t in possession of the ball when the referee blows the whistle.<\/p>\n New Zealand and Australia attempt to depower the scrum further as five Super Rugby Pacific law trials announced<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cThe intention here is to keep the game dynamic,\u201d Peyper explained.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s what I think but with a free-kick, replacing accidental offsides, if you don\u2019t use the ball within five seconds at the caterpillar rock or the box-kick, give a free-kick and take the scrum away, in my experience in refereeing, if you give a free-kick to the team that\u2019s not in possession, it slows down the game because there needs to be a transfer between this team and that team.<\/p>\n \u201cThat means that they\u2019re not going to have the quick tap option, they\u2019re probably going to wait to organise their team and kick an up and under.<\/p>\n \u201cSo there are a lot of people calling for less kicks. With this, we are most likely going to add kicks, unless the free-kick is given to the team that has possession and then the nine, or whoever\u2019s got the ball, can tap and play and continue with that dynamic stuff.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve given a lot of free-kicks in my life, and I stopped giving free-kicks at some point because I didn\u2019t get the reward for that unless a certain team\u2019s in possession.\u201d<\/p>\n While he is doubtful that the trial will have a positive impact, he added: \u201cThat\u2019s a personal view, and it\u2019s not measured. This competition hopefully brings back some data, but that\u2019s an anticipation.\u201d<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Jones argues that there hasn\u2019t been a significant change in the number of scrums over the past few years in rugby, but suggests that there is an uptick in the number of resets.<\/p>\n Springboks coaches reveal fascinating trend as Felix Jones debunks claims of \u2018more scrums\u2019 after World Rugby\u2019s tweak<\/a><\/p>\n Upskilling referees and Six Nations directives<\/p>\n These law trials are aimed at reducing the number of set-pieces, which he believes is just sweeping the real problem under the rug.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m aware of the Six Nations directives that have gone out to most of the head coaches and it\u2019ll be interesting to see if some of it gets implemented or not because there\u2019s probably a discussion point around some people wanting less scrums even though we\u2019ve shown that there actually is the same amount of scrums as there always has been,\u201d Jones said.<\/p>\n He added: \u201cI get it from the idea of wanting to have action again, but I\u2019m not sure we should be changing the fundamentals of what is one of the pure contests of rugby.<\/p>\n \u201cIt seems to be ignoring it and just sweeping the problem under the rug as opposed to going, \u2018mustn\u2019t we upskill the referees?’\u201d<\/p>\n