Plot to make seismic rugby law change leaked as World Rugby meeting held

Reports suggest meetings in London this week have been lively, with some nations looking to change the game as we know it

New Zealand and Australia are reportedly pushing for the scrum to be depowered at World Rugby meetings in London this week.

Between Tuesday and Thursday this week, the ‘Shape of the Game’ conference in the English capital will see World Rugby bring together executives and refereeing officials from various unions across the world – all with the intention of looking at the future of the sport. Within that, any requests to modify the laws are also made in these meetings.

And, according to reports in France, a clear divide has already appeared in these meetings.

L’Equipe are reporting that the governing bodies of New Zealand and Australia want to “shake things up by radically altering the game, even if it means turning their backs on some of its founding elements”, with South Africa and France opposing them in favour of a more traditional version of the game.

The crux of New Zealand and Australia’s plans would be to decrease the importance of the scrum in the modern game.

This year has already seen the two countries make changes in Super Rugby – with law trials in the competition no longer awarding a scrum for accidental offsides or not playing the ball at a ruck.

World Rugby themselves, currently chaired by Australian Brett Robinson, have already introduced a law which prevents teams from taking a scrum after the awarding of a free-kick.

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In interviews translated from French, National Rugby League president Yann Roubert outlined his fears – saying: “We’re open, but we don’t want to break what works.”

That was a sentiment echoed by French Rugby Federation president Florian Grill.

“We are very determined,” said Grill. “We believe France has genuine legitimacy given the quality of its professional rugby and its national teams.”

The lineout is also reported to be an area under threat.

“They are targeting the time-consuming phases, the moments of collective possession, in order to increase effective playing time,” said former international rugby referee Mathieu Raynal, who is now manager of the professional referees for France’s top two divisions.

“In some cases, they want to replace scrums with mauls. Currently, there are calls to allow the collapse of mauls, which is important to know.”

The ability to collapse the maul was trialled briefly in 2009, as part of the short-lived and ill-fated ELVs.

“We believe these zones are powerful symbols of our sport,” Raynal added. “They also allow players to be concentrated and thus create space, a logical consequence when you have 16 or 18 players in 10 square meters.

“It also allows us to test the players’ physicality, tire them out, and therefore open up the game over time. And in this way, everyone can participate in our sport: the big guys, the tall guys, the short guys, the fast guys.

“In the long run, the rugby advocated by New Zealand and Australia will homogenize player profiles. We’ll end up with only back-rowers or centers. This will have an impact on the democratization of our sport.”

The supposed argument behind these changes is that a more dynamic style of play could help rugby union conquer new parts of the world as a global sport.

However, the fears are that it would simply mimic rugby league.

There are already concerns over the place of the scrum in the modern game, with ITV choosing to play in-game adverts over the set-piece during this year’s Six Nations – rather than over a conversion or another less meaningful part of the game.

Australia and New Zealand also reportedly want to eliminate a permanent red card for another other than “biting, punching or kicking”, according to Raynal.

“Today, World Rugby (whose chairman Brett Robinson is Australian and director of rugby Mark Robinson is New Zealand) wants to implement the 20-minute red card instead of the permanent red card,” Raynal said. “This means that we will no longer see permanent expulsions except for biting, punching, or kicking, which no longer happens in rugby.”

“We could have a case, as early as the 5th minute of play, of a shoulder charge to the face of a key player who would leave with a fractured eye socket. And twenty minutes later, the offending team would have 15 men.

“That’s not normal. In terms of image, it would have irreversible consequences. The definitive red card is absolutely necessary in our sport. We want to preserve it.”