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New Zealand pick own ELVs

Saturday 03rd May 2008

More Laws: A unique set of ELVs will be trialled in New Zealand

New Zealand's domestic rugby competitions will be played under 16 of the Experimental Law Variations (ELVs), the New Zealand Rugby Union (NZRU) has announced.

The Air New Zealand Cup, Heartland Championship, men's 'B' competition and the women's national championship will use the 13 ELVs the International Rugby Board (IRB) announced would be trialled globally for a year from August 1, plus three ELVs currently being used in the Super 14 which relate to sanctions (where most offences are punishable by free-kicks rather than penalties and failure to clear ball at ruck or maul also results in a free-kick to the team not taking the ball in).

NZRU chief executive Steve Tew felt it was worthwhile continuing with the ELVs relating to sanctions in the hope they would eventually be accepted by the northern hemisphere unions once they had trialled them in an as yet unnamed competition - likely to be the European Challenge Cup - next season.

"We think they are an integral part of this whole process and hopefully if someone trials them in the northern hemisphere we will finally get them added back in," Tew said.

"We think it's worth trialling them at the top end of the game and produce statistics that back up that they're good for us."

Tew believed the IRB's decision to introduce the ELVs from August 1 was a good result for the game given the strong opposition to them in the northern hemisphere.

"We've had a small victory in that we've managed to turn some opinions around to get to this point. It's not as far as we'd like to go but it's a good start," he said.

He also conceded the reluctance of the northern hemisphere unions, most notably from England, to embrace the changes had been frustrating.

"They haven't trialled these ELVs, they haven't seen them face to face," said Tew.

"There's been a bit of concern that it's a southern hemisphere conspiracy, and there has been a bit of 'you don't want scrums down there so you're trying to change the rules'.

"The facts don't reflect that at all, and scrums are probably more important going forward.

"There's quite a difficult job to be done to get everyone to the same page around changing the law.

"What we don't appreciate in the south is that largely up here, certainly in the media, they think the game is 100 percent, going from strength to strength and doesn't need any change.

"We have a different view obviously and we're seeing the results of these ELVs and seeing the statistics and analysis. What we're pushing very hard for is for them to read the facts and have a crack at it themselves so they can see how it will work."