Rugby: Ruck laws bring fringe benefits

Referees hope to reduce scrum resets. Photo / NZ Herald

Stricter policing of the offside rule at rucks could be a feature of the game by the time the Rugby World Cup begins.

Super Rugby was vastly improved in 2010 by reverting to the laws of the game and none of the Sanzar countries want anything to change.

All sorts of suggestions have been made from all sorts of places about how the refereeing focus should and will change in World Cup year.

Conspiracies still abound that the northern hemisphere nations hated the faster, more fluid game produced last year and would be secretly campaigning to introduce an element of chaos that would slow things down and favour the defence-minded.

The truth is far less dramatic and the game on view in 2010 will, largely, be the game taken through to the World Cup.

The message from players, coaches and fans from around the world has been consistent: rugby was a better game for the way it was refereed last year.

Lyndon Bray, who will shortly begin the new role of Sanzar game manager, says that the feedback from South Africa, Australia and New Zealand about last year's Super Rugby competition confirmed that the interpretations were viewed as a positive.

He also says that one of the biggest supporters has been England, so there will be no major change in philosophy nor interpretations but Bray does want to see some refereeing improvements in certain areas. The first is the ruck where the offside line wasn't been vigorously policed.

"The feedback we had at our Sanzar workshop made it clear that teams feel there is much more space on the field for them to exploit - but not at rucks. We [referees] need to improve the policing of the offside line at rucks. This is an ongoing issue for world rugby and one we have not really solved yet."

The biggest concern is that players on the immediate fringe of the ruck are usually half a metre to a metre offside and that prevents the attacking team halfback from being able to run down the channel between the breakdown and the first defender.

Bray says the message has been given to referees that they have to be vigilant and ruthless; set the tone early by penalising those teams who set up their defensive guard at rucks deliberately offside.

The other area being targeted for improvement is scrums. While the engagement descended into farce during the ITM Cup and for much of the November test schedule, Super Rugby statistics from last year are encouraging.

Across the competition, there were 28 per cent fewer re-set scrums. If the Waratahs, Lions and Cheetahs are removed from the equation, then there was actually a 37 per cent improvement.

Bray says the goal is to see another 30 per cent improvement this year from all teams and strive for what he calls the golden 80:20 rule - where, for every five scrums, only one requires to be re-set.

"It is not about elimination of the contest when it comes to refereeing scrums," says Bray. "We expect our referees to get on top of this area and have key elements that have to happen. We have targeted that the tight three has this accountability to be straight."

Referees, just like the players, are competing for World Cup places and those who handle the scrum engagements well will put forward a strong claim to make the cut in September.