Have your say on World Rugby’s law trials

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World Rugby is giving everyone involved in the game, including fans, the chance to have their say on the welfare-driven global law trials which have taken place over the past nine months.

A survey is now live giving fans, players, officials and anyone else with an interest in the game a chance to make your voice heard. The questionnaire will remain available until 28 March.   

In July 2021, World Rugby announced that a package of law trials, focused on improving the welfare of players, would be trialed across the global game. Those law trials are: 

  • 50/22: This law trial is intended to create space via a tactical choice for players to drop out of the defensive line in order to prevent their opponents from kicking for touch, reducing impact of defensive line speed 
  • Goalline drop-out: This law trial is intended to reduce the number of scrums, reward good defence, encourage counter-attacking and increase the rate of ball in play 
  • Pre-bound pods of players: Outlawing the practice of pods of three or more players being pre-bound prior to receiving the ball – the sanction will be a penalty kick
  • Sanctioning the lower-limb clear-out: Penalising players who target/drop their weight on to the lower limbs of a jackler – the sanction will be a penalty kick
  • Tightening law relating to latching: One-player latch to be permitted, but this player has the same responsibilities as a first arriving player (ie must stay on feet, enter through gate and not fall to floor) – the sanction will be a penalty kick.

The results of the survey will be used alongside detailed data analysis and coach, player, referee and medical feedback to help inform the decision of the Law Review Group (LRG), which will make a final recommendation to the World Rugby high-performance rugby committee, before the World Rugby council considers the recommendations in May. Should the law trials be approved by the council, they would become full laws of the game in July 2022. 

The English version of the survey is available here.

Photo: Ryan Hiscott/INPHO/Shutterstock/BackpagePix

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Dylan Jack