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NZ tries out law changes

The three competitions are the Mitre 10 Cup, the Mitre 10 Heartlands Championship and the women's Farah Palmer Cup.

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There are amendments – slight changes to the laws – which were in effect during Super Rugby and continue.

These concern the maul and the scrum.

In a maul a players who has the ball in a maul is no longer allowed to slip to the back of the maul with the ball in his possession. To get to the back, the ball must be handed back. player with the ball cannot move to the back of the maul, otherwise a penalty can be given.

In scrums the play may continue if the scrum collapses and the ball is available, but if a player is lifted up in the front row, the referee must end the scrum immediately.

When the referee makes his mark for the middle of the scrum the teams must be crouched within 30 seconds; otherwise they are freekicked.

If a scrum wheels and it is reset, the ball is put in by the same team as was awarded the scrum.

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The scrumhalf of the team not winning the ball is not allowed to move into the space between the opposing flank and No.8.

Law Trials

These are allowed with World Rugby permission and are in addition to the amendments.

In the New Zealand case they concern time when a penalty is awarded, scoring values, the tackle and what happens afterwards. The purpose in New Zealand is to make play safer, to make the laws clearer for referees and spectators, to speed up the action and to make the game more attractive. They concern Laws 15 & 16 – the tackle and the breakdown, which was previously labelled the ruck.

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The time adaptation has been in effect in Super Rugby.

If time is up at the end of a half and a penalty awarded and a team then kicks the ball into touch, the line-out must take place. The line-out is regarded as part of the penalty. This has led to the situation where a team with the penalty wants to end the match, taps and kicks out to get the whistle to end the half.

Points' Values

Try: 6 points

Penalty try: 8 points (No conversion needed)]

Conversion, dropped goal, penalty goal: 2 points.

Tackle and Breakdown

First off, there is a new definition – of the midpoint of the tackle. That is the first point of contact between the tackler's body and the tackled player's body – the highest point of the tackler's body and the lowest point of the tackled player's body.

That midpoint is important because people wanting to play the ball at a tackle must come from behind that midpoint.

Note, too, that a tackler is a player who grabs an opponent and brings him to ground, going to ground himself. That tackler has been allowed to get to his feet and play the ball "from any direction". That special tolerance is no longer allowed. Now he must get to his feet and go round to his side of the tackle and play from behind the midpoint of the tackle. Defenders must be on their feet to play the ball with their hands and must do so before the breakdown/ruck has been formed.

The breakdown replaces the term ruck and is different. For a ruck to be formed a player from each side was required to be on his feet and in physical contact over the ball. Now in the trial the breakdown is formed "when an attacking player is over the ball on his feet". Just one player (of the attacking side) forms a breakdown. And when that happens, an offside line is formed and players may not play the ball with their hands.

The offside line at a breakdown is the hindmost foot on each side.

Players who join the break down must do from behind the offside line and behind the midpoint of the breakdown. That makes it clear that side entry is not legal.

Players joining the breakdown must bind onto any player, using their whole arm.

Players must be on their feet for the duration of the breakdown.

The player who retrieves the ball from a breakdown, often the scrumhalf, is required to be behind the hindmost foot and is allowed to lift the ball from the breakdown with his hands.

When the ball emerges from a breakdown, the breakdown is over.

It will be interesting to see what happens.

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