A competition that could change the shape of rugby around the world kicks-off here in Scotland this weekend.

The Scottish Hydro Electric Super Cup will involve all ten clubs from Scotland’s Premier Division 1. It will also be the vehicle to trial all the IRB’s experimental law variations which are designed to make rugby simpler, easier to understand, easier to play and to take out subjectivity from refereeing decisions.

The law experiments in the Scottish Hydro Electric Super Cup follow the initial trial by the IRB of a number of Experimental Law Variations at Stellenbosch University in South Africa last year.

IRB Laws Project Group chairman, Scotland’s Bill Nolan said: “Throughout the year an IRB Laws Project Group used the rugby laboratory at Stellenbosch University in South Africa to undertake a detailed review on the laws of the game and in particular the areas of the tackle and post tackle that are proving to be the most difficult to interpret in a practical manner at present.

“Following the trial a review of the ELVs was undertaken and the next stage in their development is to test them in a higher level of competition.

“The IRB is delighted that Scottish Rugby has agreed to trial all the ELVs in its new 21 -match Premier 1 Scottish Hydro Electric Super Cup in January, February and March 2007. This represents the next stage in their evolution but it must be stressed that it’s still very early days in the assessment process,” he added.

The IRB will be monitoring the matches over the next three months and members of the Laws Project Group plan to attend some of the contests.

There is considerable excitement among players and also a degree of curiosity as to how the competition will pan out.

“The idea of it is brilliant,” declared Ayr stand-off Richard McCallum. “It looks as if everything will be a bit quicker and less of a ten man game.”

Glasgow Hawks winger Sean Murray said: “The feedback we’ve heard from Stellenbosch is that the ball is in play much longer so fitness levels are going to have to be higher.”

Scrum-half Richard Snedden of newly crowned Premier 1 champions Currie indicated they were looking to make as big an impact in the new competition.

“There’s been no let-up for us over the Christmas period. Our fitness coach has had us working pretty hard. At our training session on Wednesday night the focus was on the contact area where we’ve been looking at the law variations and how ball can be freed up.”

Aberdeen GSFP prop Angus Dixon added: “This competition is good for promoting Scottish Rugby. For players we’re trying to achieve as much as we can whether it’s national age-grade rugby or winning a pro contract and to do that you have to adopt a professional attitude.”

This weekend’s opening Scottish Hydro Electric Super Cup fixtures are: Group A – Hawick v Ayr (2pm) and Glasgow Hawks v Boroughmuir (3pm); Group B – Currie v Melrose (2pm) and Watsonians v Heriot’s (3pm)


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This article was posted on 4-Jan-2007, 21:46 by Hugh Barrow.