ARU seeking level playing field after mix-up over new laws
ELITE rugby is likely to be played under different rules across the country unless the International Rugby Board backs a request for experimental law variations to be used in the club competitions of all four Super 14 provinces.
The Australian Rugby Union wants to introduce the ELVs, which were a huge success when tested in Australia last year during the premier rugby competitions of Sydney, Brisbane, Perth and Canberra.
The union believes that if club players are to be equipped to step up to the level of Super 14, in which six of the the ELVs will be used for the first time this year, it is imperative they are familiar with the new laws. But this requires approval from the IRB in Dublin, which in its latest directive approved the new laws for club competitions in Sydney and Brisbane only - the respective bases of the NSW Waratahs and Queensland Reds.
Excluded were club competitions in Perth, where the Western Force are based, and Canberra, home of the Brumbies.
ARU high performance manager Pat Howard yesterday said he was confident the IRB would support Australia's request and felt the IRB's decision was merely an oversight. "Obviously with them [the ELVs] being in the Super 14, you want to match that with them being used in club footy as well," Howard said, "and that means we need to use the ELVs in these four sites."
Howard said the ARU had been told by the IRB that if the variations were to be used in club rugby, certain criteria needed to be met. One was that all eight ELVs had to be used in club rugby, unlike in Super 14 where only six new laws will be used this year.
"The idea of these ELVs is that they are on trial. So the club competition will use the full laws," Howard said, adding that use of a reduced number of them in Super 14 was "the next filtering process".
RugbyWA raised the issue with the ARU when it saw that Perth was not included in the IRB directive, and is anxious for the issue to be settled.
The state union accepts the reason for Perth's omission but is far from convinced that the ARU's request to the IRB is a fait accompli. "Hopefully it will go that way. But we won't get too excited until we get the formal response," RugbyWA chairman Geoff Stooke said.
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ARU seeking level playing field after mix-up over new laws
