ELVs concern Northern Hemisphere
Mon, 03 Mar 2008 13:18
Some northern hemisphere unions have voiced strong reservations about the new rules that are being trialled in the southern hemisphere, Australian rugby boss John O'Neill said on Monday.
He said some of the four Home Nations expressed concerns about the Experimental Law Variations (ELVs) when chief executives from the 10 leading Test nations met in Hong Kong last weekend.
The ELVs, which are designed to help promote more ball in play and attractive free-flowing rugby, are being tested in the Super 14 tournament.
"We were a bit taken aback that following that presentation a couple of the northern hemisphere unions indicated some very strong reservations and a very strong level of scepticism about the new laws," O'Neill told reporters in a teleconference from Hong Kong.
O'Neill said there was a suspicion that the ELVs had been introduced by Australia to overcome their scrummaging problems, but he stressed he variations belonged to the International Rugby Board and that there was now the possibility of even more scrums than under the existing laws.
"There's nowhere to hide, so if you've got a weak scrum and the other team has got a strong scrum, every time there's a short arm (free kick) they are going to pack a scrum," O'Neill said.
"Some of their reservations don't actually stack up against the analysis." O'Neill said the SANZAR nations - South Africa, New Zealand and Australia - would make no decision about using the ELVs in the Tri-Nations until after the Six Nations unions convened their forum on the variations on March 28.
He said he would like the northern hemisphere nations to trial the ELVs in their domestic competitions from September 1 so they could play under them for a couple of months before the Wallabies' November Tests in Europe.
