SCOTLAND ON SUNDAY REPORTS
IAIN MORRISON
WITH the World Cup behind us focus has switched from the players to the games' administrators, because the men in suits are threatening the biggest shake up that rugby has witnessed since professionalism took over the sport back in 1995. The future shape of the game will be moulded by decisions taken this year and next.

There is action on at least three levels. Next week the International Rugby Board (IRB) is hosting a conference in Woking, Surrey, on their plans to implement a global season. The IRB's Law Project Group has already forwarded its recommendations on proposed changes to the laws of the game to the individual unions for their feedback and, last Thursday, the Celtic board met to discuss how to make the Magners League both more attractive and more competitive.

Here is how the ideas and proposals could impact on the game:

A GLOBAL SEASON

Once you start looking at an integrated season, as the IRB are doing next week, the natural conclusion is to move the Six Nations, the highlight of the Northern Hemisphere, to the end of the season in April/May. The bulk of the season (September-March) would be given over to domestic leagues and European pool matches. The season would then build to a natural crescendo with the knockout stages of the Heineken Cup in March/April going straight into the international season April/May.

The IRB are hosting a forum in Woking from Tuesday-Thursday to discuss exactly these types of issues and the attendees read like a veritable Who's Who of the international game, with representatives from all areas. The stated objective of the meeting is: "To lay the foundation for rugby to continue its phenomenal growth of the last 12 years over the next 12 years."

Under current arrangements the European season is a mess with the domestic league continually interrupted for Heineken Cup, Anglo-Welsh Cup and Six Nations commitments. The so-called "off-season" is even worse, with weakened sides from both hemispheres touring the opposite end of the globe and coming back with little more than a couple of black eyes. The Northern Hemisphere is worse than their southern counterparts but then again the international players of England and France play almost twice as many matches as those from New Zealand and Australia and are therefore more in need of some rest and relaxation.

In an attempt to address these issues the IRB has tabled four proposals on how to fill the four-year cycle between World Cups.

The first is to keep the current cycle which sees an inter-hemisphere match played in the seasons when there is no World Cup.

The second proposal suggests an inter-hemisphere tournament in the three non-World Cup years.

Proposal three calls for the three 'fallow' years to be filled by an inter-hemisphere match in the first year, an inter-hemisphere tournament in the second and another inter-hemisphere match in the third.

The fourth and most contentious proposal is for the World Cup to be held every two years, with inter-hemisphere matches in the other years.

All except the last deserve consideration and the Australian Rugby Union has already rubbished the idea of a biennial World Cup. They won't be the last because a two-year World Cup cycle would fatally undermine the exclusive nature of the tournament; its birth-mother is commercial greed rather than sporting integrity.

But there are sound reasons for focusing on the financial side of the sport. Rugby has done well over the last decade with revenues rising four-fold to £600 million, but before any complacency sets in that figure represents exactly 1.25% of the global sports market which was said to be worth a whopping £48 billion in 2005.

The IRB has asked the management consultants at Deloitte to issue two financial reports which will form the basis for discussion over the course of the three days. The first is a review of the finances of top tier rugby and the second looks at the financial implications of an integrated season.

Implications: Huge. But it won't happen any time soon and, even then, only if all the vested interests, clubs, unions, players, referees, IRB etc etc can be appeased. IRB boss Syd Miller called it a complex jigsaw, and so it is.

THE LAW CHANGES

This will be the biggest shake up of the game since 1992. The new laws are collectively known as "the Stellenbosch Laws" since several were trialed there. The changes have been agreed by the IRB, sent to the individual unions, and they should be ratified and formally announced on 1 May next year. The Super 14 is expected to adopt them and the only remaining headache is when to implement the laws globally?

At least one law change will have serious ramifications, more so for Scotland than most other countries since Chris Paterson remains the best place kicker in world rugby. Free kicks rather than penalties are to be awarded for all offences except foul play and it is probably worth remembering that in the past a try won no points whatsoever, it just enabled the team who scored to "try" for a goal (kick at posts).

Expert kickers won't completely disappear but they will surely exert far less influence in future. Persistent infringements will still be penalised and the card system remains in place, but there is every reason to expect that tries and drop-goals will become the usual way of winning matches rather than penalties. "We want players, not referees, deciding matches," was how IRB referees boss Paddy O'Brien explained it.

The worry must remain that without the sanction of gifting the opposition three points some teams will be tempted to cheat even more than they already do.

Other major changes will see hands allowed in the ruck provided the player is on his feet and the defending team will be allowed to drag a maul to the ground. The off-side law at the scrum will now be five metres behind the back foot to offer backlines a little more space and time. The linesman is to be known as the "assistant referee" with the power to intervene more often. The corner flag is no longer to be counted as touch-in-goal and the ball can be thrown backwards at a quickly taken lineout.

Finally the ball may not be kicked directly to touch if it is passed back into the 22. In that case the lineout will be taken from where it was kicked rather than from where it crosses the sideline.

Implications: It's too early to say for sure but with the likelihood of very many fewer penalties being awarded the upcoming Six Nations may be Paterson's last chance to kick Scotland out of a hole.

THE CELTIC LEAGUE

It has not been a happy start to the Heineken Cup for the Celtic teams as they have won just five of 18 matches. The league lacks integrity as this weekend illustrates with the Welsh sides stripped of their international players for a meaningless match against South Africa.

A better balance must be struck between the competing claims of clubs and unions who need to limit their player-grab to just a few weekends each year. The league desperately needs post-season playoffs when the clubs can battle for honours with a full complement of players available.

There is even talk of addressing the Heineken Cup qualification to the top teams in the Magners League, regardless of nationality but the board needs unanimity to force through any changes and it is difficult seeing the Scots voting for that one given Edinburgh and Glasgow's lowly status.

Implications: Less immediately important than the above but longer term the health of Celtic, and therefore European, rugby is at stake.

In short, the game has already changed more in the last 12 years than it did in the 112 years before that. The only certainly is uncertainty and for better or for worse your father, or perhaps his father, will struggle to recognise the game he played as a youth once the next raft of changes have taken place.

This article was posted on 25-Nov-2007, 09:04 by Hugh Barrow.