Rugby: Magpies embrace six-point try move

Craig Philpott is a fan of rule changes. PHOTO/NZME.

If any of the Hawke's Bay Magpies rugby team's wider training group need an extra incentive to run off their Christmas pud today there's an obvious one.

It's the six-point try which will be introduced to next year's Mitre 10 Cup with the aim of producing more entertaining and attacking rugby. This means new Magpies will find a huge step up in pace from the Bay's club rugby comp.

For existing Magpies it will be a case of more of the same. As Magpies head coach Craig Philpott said this week.

"It suits us down to the ground. It won't change the way we play."

The Magpies scored four or more tries in six of their 12 Championship fixtures this season and in all three Ranfurly Shield defences against Heartland Championship opponents.

Other changes to next season's comp will see the value of penalties reduced from three points to two, the use of two referees and changes to a couple of the breakdown rules. The value of a conversion will remain at two points.

"I've always been a fan of the reduced penalty. A converted try should almost be the equivalent of three penalties," Philpott said.

He predicted there will be more rolling mauls and lineout drives next year as teams kick to the corners more in situations they would have opted for penalty kicks at goal this season. Like fellow coaches Philpott was unsure about the effect of two referees.

"Until we get a gauge of how they are going to be used it's a tough one to comment on. We still don't know if there is going to be one lead ref or if there is going to be left and right refs or one focusing on the attack while the other patrols the defence or they could end up operating in tandem like they do in basketball and netball," Philpott said.

Changes to the breakdown rules won't be finalised until the Mitre 10 Cup coaches attend their March workshop where video footage of different scenarios will be studied. If the expected variations are ratified tacklers will have to roll away and their teammates will have to take up space and drive over the ball.

This will mean mauls will become more prevalent and there will be a greater emphasis on scrums.

These changes are aimed at getting players in better positions at the breakdown rather than absorbing heavy blows around the neck and head.

"There won't be many rucks," Philpott added.

One difficulty raised about the changes was the challenge Super Rugby players would have when making the transition back to the Mitre 10 Cup.

World Rugby officials said the new laws are part of a trial they have introduced in an attempt to make the game cleaner, safer and easier to understand.

The two-referee system has been trialled in South Africa's Varsity Cup and was said to have worked well. The ruck will be known as the breakdown and players will be able to enter the breakdown from any angle as long as they come from an onside position.