A faster game is on the cards for the ITM Cup, but don't expect those scrum feeds to go in any straighter from the halfbacks.
Too many unnecessary stoppages is a bugbear for rugby fans and Neil Sorensen of New Zealand Rugby alike, so the referees have been given a clear message with their game priorities for the looming competition. There will be little tolerance for any defenders not rolling away immediately, while the ball is deemed out of the ruck when the halfback lifts the ball, as opposed to touches it, as is the case now.
Nick Briant of Bay of Plenty, who is likely to be the No 1 whistler once Chris Pollock, Glen Jackson and Mike Fraser head to Rugby World Cup, wants to see the focus back on the players, rather than the match officials, but accepts that is difficult in the increasingly scrutinised area of lineout drives or mauls.
"It's a really complicated area and we are seeing deliberate tactics with teams not trying to form mauls or deliberately tackling a jumper before the maul forms. The over-arching thing is that teams are playing that area very technically, which forces our hand and means we have to ref it technically," said Briant.
More defensive teams are taking a punt and hoping the referees is thinking they way they are thinking in the hope of gaining a penalty. It can backfire. Just 10 days ago, for example, in the St Pat's Stream v Town First XV clash in Wellington, the Stream hooker (Asofa Aumua) drove over unopposed for a try after Town did not engage. That gamble could decide a final.
