Front rowers who can scrummage well are set to command premium salaries, writes Gregor Paul.
It's a new take on sink or swim - it's get rich or lose your contract. This is the brave new world of properly refereed scrums.
With the pre-engagement phase now being effectively controlled, the world will soon discover who can scrummage and who can't. The technically deficient will be
weeded out.
Those who can handle the contest will become the best-paid players in world rugby. Props are now the make-or-break men of every side. Any team that doesn't have a couple of decent scrummaging props might as well kiss goodbye to their title dreams.
It's early days for the tougher law interpretations but, even just two weeks into this season's Super 14, it is clear that better management of the scrum engagement has led to genuine contests.
At Albany in the opening game, there was just one re-set scrum as the Blues and Hurricanes worked with referee Stu Dickinson to slow down the pre-engagement.
"It is our belief that if you slow down the pre-engagement and make sure both sides are better prepared for the initial hit, then you get the desired outcome," says New Zealand Rugby Union referees manager Lyndon Bray.
"In that scenario, either poor technique or illegal technique are more easily exposed and you get a really good picture."
Bray says the drive to clean up scrums initially came from the IRB, who were sick of tests being ruined by the constant collapsing and re-setting of scrums. Nothing quite dampens the thrill like 16 men frolicking aimlessly in a heap.
There was unanimous agreement reached in both hemispheres last year that scrums had "been appalling" in tests.
"In the last five or six years, scrum coaches have had too much tactical latitude," says Bray. "That has led to a number of props having poor technique."
In some cases, the poor technique may be deliberate - a conscious decision to scrum outside the laws to gain an advantage.
But for many props, it's a case of them not having a good handle on their craft.
It is, more often than not, those players who are technically poor who cause the biggest problems.
As the Blues and Hurricanes showed, the higher the quality of the front rows, the better the contest. There were six All Blacks across the two starting front rows, all of whom wanted to have a genuine scrum battle.
Not every contest will throw up so many quality campaigners, which is why the referees and respective scrum coaches of South Africa, New Zealand and Australia are going to work together to identify who is technically sound and who is not.
For New Zealand franchises, that means All Black scrum guru Mike Cron will be poring over video tapes to search for obvious technical deficiencies.
Match referees will have to give their assessment of how teams handled the engagement and report any repeat offenders or concerns they have with individuals.
There will, then, be the equivalent of a naughty list for props. Those who can't handle their core job will be singled out and will receive tuition from Cron. That scenario will be replicated in Australia with Patricio Noriega and in South Africa with Balie Swart.
Life, not that it is particularly easy for props as it is, has become an awful lot harder. There is no hiding place any more like there was in the past. Those struggling have been able to hide behind illegal technique knowing referees will let it slide.
Frequent appearances on the naughty list will not do much for a prop's career. Word will get round the franchises that an individual is constantly in remedial work while the evidence should also be apparent on the field.
At the other end of the scale, it should become clearer over the next 13 weeks who is on top of their scrummaging game and capable of holding their own.
Destructive tightheads are already among the best-paid players in the world. The European game has a voracious appetite for big men who can scrummage and work the set-piece into a position of dominance.
The likes of Carl Hayman and Sylvain Marconnet in France earn the same sort of money as the top goal-kicking first fives.
The big men can expect their market value to rise again in the next 12 months as it becomes apparent who can and can't scrummage.