Better Rugby Rules

Source1: Thank goodness aweful ELVs have left the building – Stephen Jones
Source2: The Laws that killed rugby – Stephen Jones

Extracts..Source1

Those tests that had not already been sent back to the Frankensteins of the International Rugby Board’s awful Laws Project Group were voted out of existence. The main European unions took a lead, South Africa finally revealed their dislike for the measures and other unions weighed in.

The pouters have claimed that the European unions attacked measures that they had not even trialled, such as the sanctions laws, which were run only Down Under. That is a bit like saying you cannot have an opinion on being murdered if you have never been murdered yourself.

What next? Resignations, surely. The LPG is totally discredited. Rod Macqueen of Australia, Graham Mourie of New Zealand and Bill Nolan of Scotland, the prime movers, must surely go.

Extracts..Source2

Recent schisms in the TriNations grouping (normally a block vote) has seen South Africa breaking ranks in the ELVs debate – another heavy blow to the IRB, Australia and New Zealand. We spoke to several leading officials and learnt that South Africa are now opposed to most of the radical ELVs. One of South Africa’s most famous coaches, who has been advising the country’s delegation for tomorrow, says: “We are under pressure from our Sanzar partners and the IRB, but we want most of the ELVs out.

If you feel that only the northern hemisphere is against the ELVs, the southern façade is crumbling too. Todd Blackadder, coach of the Crusaders, the Super 14’s most successful team, says: “The same issues that people are talking about in the north are happening here. The mindless kicking. The ELVs are supposed to encourage more running rugby, but everyone’s ended up kicking it aimlessly. It’s something that needs addressing urgently. I don’t see it as North v South, it’s a global rugby issue.”

Soon after Ian McGeechan had expressed some reservations, he was descended upon by IRB heavies; when Victor Matfield, the Springbok lock, was asked about the ELVs in a press conference, he felt the need to ask his own team manager if he was allowed to express an opinion, before he revealed how much he disliked the experiments. Dick Marks, one of the most respected Australian coaches and authorities, reflected in a report, which spectacularly savaged the whole ELVs phenomenon, that most of the gushing praise for the laws was worthless, since it came from paid employees – be they players, referees or officials – of unions who were desperate to support the measures.

COMMENTS: Good on SARFU for seeing sense ! You notice the rugby scribes down under do not print news of  the NZ/AU rugby administrators received a right spanking and were sent home with a FAIL !(NOTE: If a NZ rugby scribe bags the NZRU, it becomes a little hard to make a living as the NZRU wont speak to you anymore, just ask Murray Deaker !). More evidence that some, if not all, of the management of the NZRU are just idiots. Stephen Jones has a bias against NZ rugby, sometimes it is not fair, but this time it is. This was a very large humiliation for NZ and the AU boards, after two years of trumpet blowing for the ELVs with out any objectivity there ‘rugby thinking’ as been exposed. I hope the board members of the NZRU see sense and have a clean out of the dead wood at the NZRU.