RUGBY NEWS

Experimental Law Variations

The RFUW will be supporting the IRB in trialling the 13 Experimental Law Variations (ELVs) for the 2008/09 season.

Premiership and Championship leagues including Regional Senior will play full IRB Laws and will trial all 13 of the ELV’s.
National Challenge 1 and below and Senior County will play to the IRB U19 laws and will trial all the ELV’s with the exception that they will NOT TRIAL Law 17 The Maul
All U18sCompetitions including Regional and County will play IRB U19 laws and will trial all the ELV’s with the exception that they will NOT TRIAL Law 17 The Maul.
All U15s Competitions including Regional and County will play to the RFU Under 14s Variations and will trial some of the ELV’s. They will NOT TRIAL Law 17 and Law 19 number 9 and 10, for Law 19 please refer to the RFU U14 Variations.

Experimental Law Variations (ELV’s)

Law 6 – Match Officials

1 – Assistant referees are able to assist the referee in any way that the referee requires

Law 17 – Maul

2 – Remove reference to head and shoulders not being lower then hips.

3 – Players are able to defend a maul by pulling it down.

Law 19 - Touch and Lineout

4 – If a team puts the ball back into its own 22 and the ball is subsequently kicked direct into touch, there is no gain in ground.

5 – A quick throw in may be thrown in straight or towards the throwing team’s own goal line.

6 – There is no restriction on the number of players from either team who can participate in the lineout.

7 – The receiver at the lineout must be two meters away from the lineout.

8 – The player who is in opposition to the player throwing in the ball must stand in the area between the five metre line and the touchline but must be two meters away from the five metre line.

9 – Lineout players may pre grip a jumper before the ball is thrown in.

10 – The lifting of lineout players is permitted.

Law 20 – Scrum

11 – Introduction of an offside line five metres behind the hindmost feet of the scrum.

12 – Identification of scrum half offside lines.

Law 22 – Corner Posts

13 – The corner posts are no longer considered to be touch in goal except when the ball is grounded against the post.

Information provided by Keeley Fathers, RFUW Competitions Officer

Do you have any good rugby related jokes or pictures, if so send them in to the administrator

"A forward's usefulness to his side varies as to the square of his distance from the ball."
Clarrie Gibbons

"Forwards are the gnarled and scarred creatures who have a propensity for running into and bleeding all over each other."
Peter Fitzsimmons

"In 1823, William Webb Ellis first picked up the ball in his arms and ran with it. And for the next 156 years forwards have been trying to work out why."
Sir Tasker Watkins (1979)

"The advantage law is the best law in rugby, because it lets you ignore all the others for the good of the game."
Derek Robinson
"The first half is invariably much longer than the second. This is partly because of the late kick-off but is also caused by the unfitness of the referee."
Michael Green, The Art of Coarse Rugby (1960)
"There is far too much talk about good ball and bad ball. In my opinion, good ball is when you have possession and bad ball is when the opposition have it."
Dick Jeeps (1976)

"You've got to get your first tackle in early, even if it's late."
Ray Graved

North East Regional Rugby