Rugby: Sanzar won't be the bunny for new law trials

There is consensus from the game's leaders that the shambolic tackled ball rules need changing. Photo / Getty Images

Changes are going to be made to rugby's law book and are, almost certainly, going to be radical but Sanzar are determined they won't be the guinea pigs to trial these changes this time around.

The tackled ball is the main area that needs changing and the scrum and rolling maul are going to have new thinking applied, too.

In principle, that much has been agreed. The leading rugby nations met last month and reached consensus that revolution rather than evolution was the only choice if they wanted to make lasting improvements to the game.

The tackled ball is such a mess, there is no appetite to poke and prod it and hope that would magically fix it.

Confusion reigns every time a player is tackled and that area of the game has become chaotic and destructive in its ability to alienate and bore the rugby populous.

The problem is the laws — written in year dot and now hideously out of date and irrelevant.

"Everyone agreed there was a problem," says All Blacks coach Steve Hansen, who was at the law review meeting. "The question was effectively, what do we do about it? Do we do what we have always done and stick a band aid on it? It was encouraging we got agreement that we have a bigger duty than that."

Change the laws, change the game — that's the plan from 2016. What happens now is that every nation will work out specific law changes they want to see implemented.

Whatever they come up with has to make rugby a better game to play and watch and easier to referee. It also has to preserve the main tenet that each and every aspect provides opportunity for fair competition but also make things safer.

Depending on timing, there will be another get-together before the end of the year and the best ideas will be put on the table with the opportunity then for various competitions to trial law changes.

It will be at this point when some nervousness will kick in.

The same place was reached in the aftermath of the 2007 World Cup and the same process delivered a handful of law-change proposals designed to speed up the game.

Sanzar opted to trial nearly all of them — known as the Experimental Law Variations — in the 2008 Super Rugby and Tri-Nations competitions.

The problem, though, was that the Northern Hemisphere weren't so eager and held off.

That meant Super Rugby was played with the ELVs, the June tests reverted to the old laws, the Tri-Nations went back to the ELVs and the European tour was played under the old laws.

It was a confusing and difficult period for players and coaches and the All Blacks were caught out early in the Tri-Nations.

Wallabies coach Robbie Deans had been with the Crusaders in the early part of the year before he shifted across the Tasman and had experience of the new game.

The All Blacks coaches didn't and had to prepare their team to play Ireland and England under the old laws and then two weeks later take on South Africa and Australia under the ELVs.

They made some major tactical errors due to their lack of understanding and lost two on the bounce. The consensus was that the experiment had been worthwhile — even though no laws were adopted — but the implementation of the trial process had been a disaster.

This time round, if New Zealand/Sanzar adopt any of the proposed ideas, they will push for a cleaner, unified trial process. In other words, Sanzar won't once again be the guinea pig.