Sanzar united over new laws for S14
The push for next year's Super 14 and Tri Nations competitions to be run under the new experimental laws trialled in the Australian Rugby Championship is gaining momentum, with the three southern hemisphere powers all agreeing to their use.
The International Rugby Board will soon receive a formal and unified request from the Australian, New Zealand and South African unions that they be introduced as soon as next year.
The Australian Rugby Union board voted in support of their use at a four-hour board meeting held in Paris on Friday.
The Sanzar board, representing Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, also voted in agreement of the proposal.
"The three nations have agreed to approach the IRB and formally apply to use the laws in 2008," ARU chief executive John O'Neill said.
The new laws, known as ELVs, have been met with a positive response since being trialled to various degrees around the world this year.
The laws are aimed at speeding up the game and making it easier to understand for players, referees, officials and the viewing public.
All eight laws were used in the inaugural ARC, and while some players felt that certain laws would need tweaking, the exercise was a huge success.
O'Neill said before the ARC trial that he would like to see the ELVs tested at Super 14 and Test level, but the IRB baulked at the proposal.
When asked by the Herald about the prospect, IRB chairman Syd Millar said O'Neill may have been premature in advocating that their use be fast-tracked.
However, now the ARU and Sanzar are firm in their intent to push the IRB for approval.
The IRB will next meet in Paris on Friday when it is expected that the SANZAR proposal will be tabled.
The IRB meeting will also look at the ongoing issue of whether the World Cup should be a tournament for 16 or 20 teams.
There are concerns about the host nation of the next World Cup in 2011 – New Zealand – being able to stage the tournament with 20 teams.
However, the campaign to keep the event open for 20 teams has gained huge support during this year's tournament in France.
Many of the games were highlighted by close tussles – in some cases, upset defeats – between rugby powers and the minnows.
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O'Neill calls for more tries
O'Neill calls for more tries
October 24, 2007
RUGBY Union should follow the lead of rugby league and look to make significant changes to improve the game.
That was the message from Australian Rugby Union chief executive John O'Neill, who said yesterday on his return home that two "very poor" World Cup semi-finals and a tryless decider demonstrated an urgent need for a rethink on the sport.
"Rugby league went from unlimited tackles to limited tackles; it went from three metres to five metres and reduced the value of a field goal to one," O'Neill said.
"When you say, 'why did it do that', it did it for some pretty obvious reasons and we may be confronted with the same reasons.
"Rugby league has been around as a professional game for 100 years, I think there's a lot we can learn from some of their law changes.
"We need to create space, we need to create time, we want to create a philosophy that encourages try-scoring, that's what people come to see.
"We had two very poor (World Cup) semi-finals and we had a final in which there were no tries scored, that will not bring the crowds back."
While applauding the efforts of underdog nations Fiji, Tonga and Georgia, O'Neill conceded the final stages of the 20-team World Cup made unattractive viewing.
"It's fair to say the semi-finals and final were disappointing in terms of a spectacle," he said.
"We had a lot of aimless kicking and the final was a very poor game.
"Heartiest congratulations to (champion) South Africa, but it was not what you would call a showcase of rugby."
As such, O'Neill thought SANZAR would be foolish not to embrace the Stellenbosch laws.
"What I think it has done is convince people that the new laws, the experimental laws, must come in sooner rather than later and we expect that the International Rugby Board will write to SANZAR inviting us to use the experimental laws in the 2008 Super 14," he said.
"I think SANZAR would have rocks in its head if it didn't accept the invitation."
The experimental Stellenbosch laws were trialled in the recently concluded inaugural Australian Rugby Championship and drew praise for the flowing rugby produced.
O'Neill said the ARC had been successful from a rugby perspective and as a player development tool, but the ARU couldn't afford to sustain the seven-figure loss it incurred this year over coming seasons.
"I think the economic model when it was done was not done robustly enough and we now need to go back and revisit it," he said.
Another important issue to be addressed by the IRB would be the contentious concept of an integrated global season.
Asked if Australia had a preferred model, O'Neill said the ARU would go into an IRB workshop next month on the integrated season with an open mind and urged northern hemisphere nations to do the same.
"It's imperative that people don't come in saying the English clubs have a deal and the French clubs have a deal and very soon there's little room to move, then there's not much point having such a meeting," he said.
The Australian
