Richard Loe: Rule changes give welcome boost to game

The poor old game of rugby has been under siege in the past year so it's good to see it making a comeback with the new rule interpretations.

It's particularly satisfying to see that the Northern Hemisphere's leading competition - the Guinness Premiership - has admitted it needs to make changes after a long, awful period of boring rugby up there.

This first raised its head a month or so ago when the prospect loomed of the north adopting the same law changes and improving the game there.

The head of the IRB referees, Paddy O'Brien, shot back that the same rules were in force in the Northern Hemisphere. Well, maybe, Paddy - but the interpretations were bloody different, weren't they?

You could see it with a glance at just about any Northern Hemisphere match - and a glance was about all you could stand.

It was static, boring rugby; a contest for possession, sure, but very little done with that possession other than to kick.

After admitting tries are down 40 per cent, the Premiership will use the same interpretations as the Super 14 - and good on them.

This means two things: 1) the IRB still can't control the clubs and 2) the clubs have realised what the IRB hasn't.

There's a third matter - adopting identical interpretations will bring some consistency to world rugby ahead of the 2011 World Cup and that's a good thing.

I'd suggest anyone wanting to advance from pool play in the World Cup will have to score tries - and there must be doubt about the ability of the Six Nations countries to do that under current conditions.

This year's Six Nations was dire; exciting in parts because the scores were so close. Scores were so close because no one was doing much other than kicking. Even perpetual Kiwi-bashers like Welsh media man Stephen Jones were forced to admit the quality of rugby was awful.

Six Nations teams inherited all the style (or lack of it) and shortcomings of the club sides and have realised they can't stay in that mode long-term or the game will lose support.

It's interesting that the raw statistics suggest the game in New Zealand is slightly down on tries and way up on penalties this year over last.

In the previous season, we were all moaning about too much kicking and dominant defences - and yet we have scored fewer tries and suffered more penalties this season.

Just goes to show you can't always judge from stats. You can see at a glance how much the games have improved under the new interpretations.

There might be things to work on and maybe something needs to be done about devoting only one or two men to the rucks and instead putting numbers into the defensive line - that might explain the tries stat a bit.

But I'd take no notice of the penalty count. It's up because the short-arm free kicks are way down and the referees are imposing themselves.

Other indicators suggest the game is flowing more, - and it is. The horrible kicking duels have largely disappeared and there is more structure and sizzle.

The NZRU and Sanzar can take a bow. I have been coming on strong about how New Zealand Super 14 franchises are being out-coached - and I still believe that, generally speaking.

But it was good to see the Blues and Chiefs putting the move on the Bulls' rolling maul and driving it out of play as a weapon.

Such things and the fact the rule interpretations are working so well means New Zealand can still lead in terms of rugby thinking.