Rugby Set to Get `Spiced Up' With New Regulations in Super 14

By Grant Clark

Dec. 4 (Bloomberg) -- Next year's Super 14 tournament will trial new rules aimed at speeding up play and improving rugby as a spectacle following a World Cup dominated by kicking.

The provincial competition -- contested by teams from New Zealand, Australia and South Africa -- will use so-called experimental law variations at lineouts, scrums and breakdowns in a bid to ``spice up'' the sport and make it easier to understand, the three national rugby bodies said in a statement.

Among the changes, quick lineouts can go backward; free kicks, rather than penalty kicks, will be awarded for all offenses other than offside and foul play; backlines must be five meters (16 feet) back from the scrum line; if the ball is carried or passed back into the 22-meter zone and kicked into touch, the lineout will be held from where the ball was kicked.

The rules will make the Super 14 ``more enjoyable and entertaining for all involved,'' Matt Carroll, deputy chief executive officer of the Australian Rugby Union, said in today's statement.

Carroll said the changes had received ``very favorable reviews'' at trials in lower leagues in South Africa, the U.K., New Zealand and Australia.

This year's World Cup was criticized for a lack of running rugby and an emphasis on kicking in the latter stages, including South Africa's final win over England in Paris in October.

David Kirk, New Zealand's 1987 World Cup-winning captain, wrote in the Sydney Morning Herald after the final that rugby administrators would have to decide whether the ``dull, no-risks approach that has predominated at the business end of the tournament'' was ``good for the game.''

Other Changes

Also under the new regulations, a player will be ruled in- play if he has contact with a corner flag without touching the touchline or beyond, while players entering a breakdown must do so from directly behind the player tackled or the tackler. Offside lines are set immediately after the tackle.

The International Rugby Board, which oversees the sport globally and runs the World Cup, asked the Super 14 nations to test the rules, said Steve Tew, the New Zealand Rugby Union's deputy CEO. A trial in New Zealand's men's B competition produced ``a more open game and the variations were positively received by our players, coaches and referees,'' he said.

The 2008 Super 14 tournament opens Feb. 15 with games in Christchurch, Sydney and Durban.