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Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Experimental Law Variations (ELVs)
By jkjhooks @ 8:49 AM :: 653 Views :: 2 Comments ::

Lots of questions have been circulating about the Experimental Law Variations that were adopted for a worldwide trial as of August 1, 2008. The confusion has been worsened by the fact that the Super 14 and Tri-Nations competitions have been using the full contingent of ELVs, as opposed to the 13 that have been adopted for the worldwide trial.

Attached are two iRB productions that should serve as a tool to better understand those that we will be playing. One is 16 page document that specs out each of the 13, and the second is a youtube video that should give you the same amount of detail.

http://www.irb.com/mm/document/NewsMedia/0/080711IRBELVGuideEN_5897.pdf

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ya7UyUqkYtU

I’ll give a short description of each, but the ultimate definition should come from the iRB material.

Jeremiah

Assistant Referees

Qualified touch judges (those certified to touch judge and/or referee) may be referred to as Assistant Referees, and be given a greater range of responsibility to call things such as foul play. Substitute players who are not qualified, however, will continue to be referred to as touch judges, and the scope of their responsibility will continue to be limited to touch, touch-in-goal and kicks at goal.

Maul

Players will no longer be required to join a maul with their shoulders above their hips. Must be managed carefully, however, as coming in low could cause a maul to collapse by taking the legs out…which is still illegal.
Defenders may now pull an opponent in the maul down, if done from the shoulders to the hips. The player must be pulled to the ground. (referees will need to manage whether or not this was an attempt to pull down the maul, or to pull a player out of the maul...which remains illegal) This does not necessarily end the maul, as others may remain on their feet and bound to opposition.

Touch and Lineout

If a team places the ball back into their own defending 22m, and the ball is kicked directly into touch without a tackle, ruck or maul formed prior to the kick, there will be no gain in ground (played as if straight out, outside the 22m).
A quick throw may be thrown in straight or toward the team’s own defending goal line. Referees and TJs will no longer be required to monitor a straight throw while arriving at the quick throw in.
The team throwing in no longer determines the maximum number of players in a lineout. Both teams are still required to have at least two participants for the lineout to have formed, but the defense may now have more players in the lineout than the team throwing in.
If a team elects to have a player in the receiver position (the scrumhalf position, who would receive a tapped or thrown ball from the lineout), that player must be at least 2m from the lineout.
Teams are required to have a player in the defending hooker position at a lineout. That player must stand between the touch line and a place 2m from the 5m line.
Pre-gripping of jumpers is allowed.
Lifting of lineout players is allowed (simply removing the reference to reflect what’s done in practice).

Scrum

The offsides line at a scrum is 5m behind the last foot of the scrum, for either side.
The defending scrumhalf has three options for an offsides line at the scrum. The first would be to follow the ball and the opposing scrumhalf (while staying on the side into which the ball was thrown), until the ball is taken out. The second would be to remain in close proximity to the scrum, and retreat to the hindmost foot of the non-winning side of the scrum. The last option would be to retreat behind the 5m offsides line.

Corner Posts

Corner posts are no longer considered to be touch-in-goal, except when the ball is grounded against the post.

Comments

By johnpercyniedzielski @ Friday, August 22, 2008 7:45 AM

In the lineout the receiver (scrum half) must stand 2 meters from the lineout, does this now mean that he cannot insert and become a jumper?

By jkjhooks @ Monday, August 25, 2008 5:24 AM

"Receiver" means the person who receives the tapped or thrown ball from the lineout. You can still have someone start in the receiver position, then enter as a jumper, as long as someone steps out of the line in order to be the receiver...and that person must take a position two meters from the lineout.

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