The (Ever-Changing) Laws of Rugby - 2009
by Stephen Parrill

The “Ever-Changing” Laws of Rugby

Since August of 2008 the International Rugby Board has approved trying some “Experimental Law Variations (ELVs)”.  On May 5^th, 2009, they voted the following changes to the ELVs and to continue the experiment with the other ELVs.

Relevant parts  of the press release on the modification to the ELVs are copied below.
 
Summary of Changes
Most of the current world-wide variations were accepted into full Law. The three exceptions are
a.. Entering a maul with shoulders below hips (will no
longer be acceptable)
b.. Pulling down a maul (will no longer be allowed)
c.. Numbers in lineouts (Throwing team will set the maximum. Non-throwing team cannot have more than that.)
There are a couple of other changes allowing local (e.g. National Union) option for extending the half time interval to fifteen minutes (but not for Internationals), local changes (if desired by the National Union) on substitutions and a local option regarding the level at which the U19 Scrum Variation is introduced.

See article in Archive Issue 2 for a description of all the ELVs.

To view all the current Laws of Rugby in English in a downloadable format visit the following site: http://www.irb.com/mm/Document/LawsRegs/0/IRBLaws2009ENlores_7685.pdf

For a highly interactive rugby law experience complete with everything from a test on the laws (with  a certificate when you pass) to a video of  every referee signal go to www.irblaws.com .

And below is a law about dangerous tackling which has been around since 2007, but referees are now being instruced to enforce with a red card. Below is part of a memorandum from the IRB dated June 7, 2009, on how these dangerous tackles should be handled.

Dangerous Tackles

Subject:

In 2007, the IRB Council approved a Laws Designated Members Ruling which essentially made it clear that tackles involving a player being lifted off the ground and tipped horizontally and were then either forced or dropped to the ground are illegal and constitute dangerous play.

At a subsequent IRB High Performance Referee Seminar at Lensbury referees were advised that for these types of tackles they were to start at red card as a sanction and work backwards.

Unfortunately these types of tackles are still being made and the purpose of this memorandum is to emphasize that they must be dealt with severely by referees and all those involved in the off-field disciplinary process.

To summarise, the possible scenarios when a tackler horizontally lifts a player off the

ground: