KEY POINTS:
Mark down May next year as the time the confusion will end. That's when the new rules - the ELVs - will finally be ratified. Or not.
A major checklist will greet IRB delegates when they arrive for their scheduled meeting. Every experimental law trialled in the past 18 months will be on it. Delegates will simply tick the ones they want, scratch out those they don't.
Each law given 75 per cent backing will become permanent and implemented in the Northern Hemisphere from August 1, 2009, and from January 1, 2010, in the Southern Hemisphere.
The news brings relief. Patience for the ELV trials has worn thin. In Hong Kong last week, Japan coach John Kirwan pleaded with the IRB to make up their minds, install a set of rules and universally apply them.
He spoke for every follower of the game and his frustration is understood by Bill Nolan, the Scottish chairman of the committee that has overseen the design and implementation of the ELVs.
``I think we have learned a lot in this process,' says Nolan. ``I don't think, if we had our time again, we would go around in the global experiment.'
That said, Nolan feels it was vital to trial the laws in game conditions and the major plus, as he sees it, is that his committee now have a flood of statistics with which to present the case for and against all the various rules.
``This is the first time we have been able to use technology in such a way to make an analytical assessment. In the past, well, let's just say that in the past rule changes have not been all that scientific.'
By March next year, the IRB will have analysis from more than 800 matches allowing Nolan to present a case based on statistics. However, statistics can be interpreted in different ways and there needs to be clarity around what type of game it is that the IRB are hoping to create.
There has been suspicion of the ELVs since they were implemented. There were many claims from the Northern Hemisphere that the rationale was to support the more fluid and dynamic styles favoured by the All Blacks and Wallabies.
Fears grew that the game would cease to be one for people of all shapes and sizes and that the integrity of the set piece would be compromised, leaving rugby too close in appearance to league.
Nolan has followed the debate, read all the various claims about what will and will not happen as a consequence of the ELVs and he remains convinced that, other than the sanctions, there has been no dramatic change in the structure of the game.
``If you take out the sanctions and then take everything else into account, there has been very little structural change to the game. The ELVs are not reshaping the game dramatically.'
That is what the IRB always intended. The intention of the ELVs was to see if they could return the sport to where the players and not the referees made the crucial decisions. It was to maintain the sport as one for all shapes and sizes and open opportunities for different styles to be pursued and for it to become an easier game for the spectator to understand and follow.
Nolan uses the sanctions as an example of how the ELVs create opportunities. ``If you are awarded a half-arm penalty, you don't have to tap and run. I was in New Zealand earlier this year and saw the Crusaders play the Brumbies.
``The Crusaders took the option to scrum almost every time and you have more space to exploit now from the scrum,' Nolan said.
``So there is choice.
``You have to remember too these laws apply to the social game as well as the elite game, so if you are not the fastest or fittest, then you can still maul the ball all day. But you have the choice of tap and run as well.'
The most fascinating part of the vote next May will be learning whose opinion each nation canvassed before deciding which laws to keep.
The view of the coaches will not be the view of the players and various other stakeholders will have a different take again. Reaching a consensus will not be easy as there is only one law likely to receive universal support within each nation - the five-metre gap at scrum ball.
And it might be that is the only law to win enough support to become a legacy of the past 18 months.
