Game On Global

Wow.

No messing about from World Rugby as they today announced a groundbreaking programme of optional community law variations allowing national unions to make significant changes to the amateur game from next January.

Details of the optional changes can be found here and include changes to the number of players on each team (10-15), the duration of games (40 to 80 minutes), pitch size, the use of rolling substitutions, adjusting the tackle height (as successfully trialled in South Africa and France), introducing weight-based banding as per New Zealand Rugby, modifications to set pieces - including adjusting numbers in the scrum and non-contested line outs – and changes to kicking options, such as penalties only being kicked to touch from inside a team’s half and all conversions being from in front of the posts.

It is all quite radical and recognises something I’ve been saying for a while, that the gulf between the elite game and the grassroots game is now so huge that sometimes it is impossible to recognise the rugby being played at the professional level as being the same game being played on a wet Saturday afternoon at your local rugby club.

By and large, therefore, I am supportive of any changes which encourage particpiation at community level whilst also trying to make the game as safe as possible.

My only real concern – and we are back to the question of unintended consequences here – is that different Unions will adopt different variations to their respective grassroots games, meaning that we could well end up with very different versions of rugby being developed in various parts of the World.

Total Flanker – the older I get, the better I was