KEY POINTS:
All Black Nick Evans is expecting more time to make decisions with ball in hand, but also to do a lot more running under rugby's experimental rule changes.
Evans reported for duty at his new Super 14 franchise yesterday, the first of the Blues' World Cup contingent to
do so.
The three Sanzar unions have announced the adoption of eight experimental law variations (ELVs) for next year's Super 14 with the aim of keeping the ball in play longer and producing a more free-flowing spectacle.
Among the changes is shifting the offside line at scrum time to 5m behind the hindmost foot of the scrum.
The move will give Evans and other first five-eighths some added respite from marauding opposition loose forwards.
"You're going to have more room for a start," Evans said. "It's going to be harder for teams to rush you. There's going to be more ways to manipulate defences."
Evans expected plenty of analysis of the ELVs by coaching staffs in the coming week as they look to adjust their attacking and defensive systems.
"The games are going to be a lot more open, which is going to be good for viewers, but tough for us, because we're going to have to do a lot more running around," he said. "From now till early January, there's going to be a lot of brainstorming in the franchises."
The ELVs are likely to be used in the Tri-Nations, but not in the preceeding tests, including the All Blacks' home matches against Ireland and England.
From Evans' perspective, the situation was less than ideal for the players.
"It's going to be a bit more mental for us, isn't it? We're going to have to brush up on two sets of laws. It's a bit annoying to be honest, but they make the laws, we don't."
The Blues' World Cup All Blacks are not due back at training until next month. But Evans, who spent the past four seasons with the Highlanders, said he wanted to give himself plenty of time to get acquainted with his new teammates.
Also, having settled back into his home region of Auckland and with time on his hands, he "got bored" and wanted "to keep the rust at bay".
Evans, 27, was one of the best performers in the All Blacks' World Cup campaign, which ended abruptly with the quarter-final defeat to hosts France.
"I think we did everything that we possibly could have done," he said.
He gave his backing to the incumbent test coaching panel led by Graham Henry, who faces three challengers in Robbie Deans, Colin Cooper and Ian Foster.
Evans described the All Black set-up of the past three years as the best rugby environment he had been in during his career.
* Meanwhile former All Black second-five Aaron Mauger said from Leicester, where he awaits his debut match, that he favoured Deans. "Graham is fine but Robbie is in his prime and he'd be my pick. Maybe it would be good to get a fresh start."
- NZPA