ELVs conference: The maul's place at the heart of rugby union is set to be preserved following a meeting of nearly 60 senior rugby stakeholders. The International Rugby Board conference was called to discuss the global impact of experimental law variations (ELVs) currently being trialled.
After two days of detailed review, including statistics from over 800 matches in 15 different countries, a total of 10 ELVs were recommended to be passed into full law.
But the two most controversial ELVs were not ratified. The conference recommended the law allowing mauls to be pulled down should be thrown out.
And the sanctions ELV which sees most offences penalised with a free-kick, currently being trialled in the southern hemisphere, has been sent away for further review.
The committee also rejected the ELV allowing teams to select as many players as they want in the lineout.
Recommended ELVs include a five-metre off-side line at the scrum and the pass-back rule, which prevents players from making any ground with a kick to touch if the ball has been played back into their own 22.
The conference was not a decision-making forum but was designed to help the IRB’s rugby committee finalise their own list of ELV recommendations to put before the full IRB council on May 13th.
“We held a positive and constructive meeting at which all stakeholders were able to share their opinions on each of the ELVs. This was an important milestone for the ELV programme and it was crucial that robust discussion was entered into and that all positive and negative impacts of the ELVs were raised,” IRB chairman Bernard Lapasset said today.
“Naturally opinions differed in several areas of the ELV programme. The IRB regards this as a healthy and positive state of affairs as the game’s laws have always and should continue to allow coaches and players to interpret law so that different styles of play can be employed.”
Recommended for adoption into law:
Law 6– Assistant Referees allowed
Law 19– Kicking directly into touch from ball played back into 22 equals no gain in ground
Law 19– Quick throw permitted in any direction except forward
Law 19– Positioning of player in opposition to the player throwing-in to be two metres away from lineout and the line of touch
Law 19– Pre-gripping of lineout jumpers allowed
Law 19– Lifting in the lineout allowed
Law 19– Positioning of receiver must be two metres away from lineout
Law 20– Five-metre offside line at the scrum
Law 20— Scrumhalf offside line at the scrum
Law 22– Corner posts no longer touch in goal
Not recommended for adoption into law:
Law 17— Maul — head and shoulders not to be lower than hips
Law 17— Maul — pulling down the maul
Law 19– Freedom for each team to determine lineout numbers
