Some northern hemisphere unions have voiced strong reservations about new rules that are being trialled in the southern hemisphere, Australian rugby boss John O'Neill said Monday.
He said some of the four Home Nations expressed concerns about the Experimental Law Variations (ELVs) when chief executives from the 10 leading Test nations met in Hong Kong last weekend.
The ELVs, which are designed to help promote more ball in play and attractive free-flowing rugby, are currently being tested in the Super 14 tournament.
‘We were a bit taken aback that following that presentation a couple of the northern hemisphere unions indicated some very strong reservations and a very strong level of scepticism about the new laws,’ O'Neill told reporters in a teleconference from Hong Kong.
O'Neill said there was a suspicion that the ELVs had been introduced by Australia to overcome their scrummaging problems, but he stressed the variations belonged to the International Rugby Board and that there was now the possibility of even more scrums than under the existing laws.
‘There's nowhere to hide, so if you've got a weak scrum and the other team has got a strong scrum, every time there's a short arm (free kick) they are going to pack a scrum,’ O'Neill said.
‘Some of their reservations don't actually stack up against the analysis.’
O'Neill said the SANZAR nations -- South Africa, New Zealand and Australia -- would make no decision about using the ELVs in the Tri-Nations until after the Six Nations unions convened their forum on the variations on March 28.
He said he would like the northern hemisphere nations to trial the ELVs in their domestic competitions from September 1 so they could play under them for a couple of months before the Wallabies' November Tests in Europe.
The variations adopted for the Super 14 include:
-- Backlines must be five metres back from the scrum.
-- On lineouts, quick throw-ins can now go backwards, towards the own goal line.
-- For all offences other than offside and foul play, the sanction is a free kick rather than a penalty.
-- If a player passes or carries the ball from outside to inside his own 22-metre line and he or a teammate kicks it into touch, the lineout will be from where the ball is kicked out.
One of the major developments to come out of the Hong Kong meeting was the intention to produce a more detailed plan of a proposed bi-annual inter-hemisphere ‘world series’.
Under the plan, the Tri and Six Nations teams would play eight Tests a year for points, with the two leaders meeting in a one-off final at the end of the year.
O'Neill said it still had to be determined which Tests in a year would count for points if the proposal was adopted, while a points system would also need to be approved.
‘We are in favour of bonus points and the like as we use in Super rugby and Tri-Nations, there's lots of debates about those things and the northern hemisphere don't like those bonus point arrangements,’ O'Neill said.
‘I think there's a fair few things on the checklist that need to be done to satisfy everyone that it is going to be worthwhile.’
