The Champions and Challenge Cups will adopt four new law trials midway through the pool stage of the competition, with the Premiership following suit later this month for the 11th round of league fixtures.
From round three of the Champions and Challenge Cups, which will take place over the weekend commencing January 10, matches will allow skewed line-out throws provided that the defensive team does not jump to contest them.
European Professional Club Rugby (EPCR) has also confirmed there will be 30-second limits on setting up line-outs and scrums, and a reduction from a limit of 90 seconds to 60 seconds for conversions.
Finally, scrum-halves will receive greater protection at scrums, rucks and mauls. After ratification by World Rugby last November, these changes will be rolled out in competitions that begin in 2025, meaning that they will feature during the Six Nations.
Telegraph Sport understands the Premiership will take on these law trials from round 11, which begins on January 24.
Greater protection for scrum-halves will see defenders penalised for making a tackle on an opponent if they are part of a ruck or a maul. At scrums, defending scrum-halves will not be able to advance beyond the centre line of the tunnel.
Coaches anticipate these changes will increase the value of scrum-halves who possess a running threat, given that those players will be presented with more space in which to operate.
The line-out throwing change will alter the wording of law 18.23 so that it now reads: “If the non-throwing team does not lift a team-mate to compete for the ball, then play shall continue. If the non-throwing team lift a team-mate to compete for the ball, then they shall be offered the option of a line-out or scrum.”
Like the other law changes, this was in play for the 2024 Rugby Championship. Sources suggested to Telegraph Sport at the end of last year that the line-out tweak could see an increase in trick plays because defences may opt to stay down to stop the maul rather than jumping to contest the throw.
Karl Dickson will take charge of Glasgow Warriors’ meeting with Racing 92 on January 10, the first Champions Cup game to feature these new laws.
Incessant tinkering will confuse fans – but there is some upside
The consternation of Tupou Vaa’i was at once highly amusing and profoundly emblematic of an issue that has become synonymous with rugby union.
In the 26th minute of New Zealand’s meeting with Ireland at the Aviva Stadium, the All Blacks had a line-out five metres out from their hosts’ try-line. Vaa’i was lifted and gathered Asafo Aumua’s throw without being challenged by an opposition jumper.
However, referee Nic Berry stopped the drive before it had begun, correctly adjudging that the delivery had not been straight. Vaa’i and Wallace Sititi, a lifter, spun to address Berry, protesting that Ireland had not hoisted a jumper, and therefore the direction of the throw should not matter.
Berry needed to explain that the laws that had been in place for the 2024 Rugby Championship – and for the 2024 Super Rugby campaign before that – were no longer applicable. It was an incident, and an expression from Vaa’i, that summed up a sport’s incessant tinkering. If players cannot keep track of the laws, how can fans – let alone new ones – be expected to?
On the face of it, the latest news, whereby the northern hemisphere’s premier club competitions are adopting four tweaks midway through their schedule to fall into line with global trials approved by World Rugby, might seem ridiculous.
Competitions that begin in 2025, such as the Six Nations and the upcoming Super Rugby campaign, will be governed by these amendments – such as more protection for scrum-halves and non-straight line-outs provided for uncontested throws – from the outset and throughout.
The Champions and Challenge Cups, the Premiership and others are changing now, close to the halfway point of a season. The scenario is far from ideal, and very rugby union.
Given the global law trials approved by World Rugby were specifically for “new competitions/leagues starting after January 1”, they did not have to be implemented immediately. A fair question is ‘why now’?
Insiders insist all parties were in agreement that ripping off the plaster was the best course of action. One obvious reason for quick action is that it provides prospective internationals with greater scope to get up to speed before the Six Nations and the cross-hemisphere summer tours, including the British and Irish Lions heading to Australia. There are other plus points, too.
Stricter time limits of set-pieces and conversions simply make sense and should be policed stringently. The non-straight line-out throws, in the case of a defending team staying down, speed up the game as well – even if they do represent another means of avoiding scrums.
It always seemed a bit strange that tacklers could reach through rucks or spin out of mauls to collar scrum-halves; a practice that will be outlawed from the third round of Champions and Challenge Cup pool matches. Premiership clubs will be able to do it in round 10 this weekend, but not in round 11. Make sense?
There will always be unintended consequences as well. As one source explained, a team will doubtlessly highlight how they were collared for a skewed throw in the first half of the season that would have been allowed in the second half.
The same source did call the changes “pretty neutral from a tactical point of view”, in that they would not drastically empower or de-power teams. Clubs with rapid scrum-halves and mighty maulers will be pleased, of course.
All in all, it is another fudge to co-ordinate the hemispheres that will require players and officials to stay on their toes and supporters to keep their wits about them. A safe bet is that we will have more Vaa’i-like confusion before the season is out.
