Rassie Erasmus hits out at World Rugby chair’s ‘ridiculous statement’ over law changes
Springboks head coach Rassie Erasmus and an inset of World Rugby Chair Brett Robinson.
Rassie Erasmus has rubbished World Rugby chair Brett Robinson’s claim that law changes and tweaks take too long to implement.
The governing body’s boss hopes that the game can trial more law adaptations before the 2027 Rugby World Cup in Australia but bemoaned the ‘outdated’ processes needed for changes to be made.
He hopes that the Nations Championship will unite the respective unions after one trial failed to be pushed through due to human error, as it needed 75% of members to be in favour of change.
Robinson also rues a ‘cultural problem’ in the game, with northern and southern hemisphere nations seldom seeing eye-to-eye on matters and how things should change.
Too long for change
Still, the time it takes for alterations to take place has frustrated the World Rugby bigwig.
“I don’t think we are moving at a [good] pace,” he told the Rugby Unity podcast in December.
“We have a cultural problem in our game that involves us wanting to move all the world together, and that’s hard because you have different perspectives on how the game should be played, and it’s hemispheric… We don’t have a system that really enables that to move quickly.
“That’s something I’ve also challenged us to reconsider as to how we get the work done.”
However, Erasmus says that the notion is ‘ridiculous’ as the consequences of changes need to be appropriately considered.
He said as much after SA Rugby’s national law advisor, Jaco Peyper, detailed the process that World Rugby conducts before any changes are made.
“So World Rugby has constant measures out there, tracking data and stats in all competitions from European rugby to Super Rugby and even the Currie Cup,” the former Test referee explained on the Rassie+ podcast.
“They’ll look at the data and process it, and say the game’s trending in a certain way, let’s dive deeper. Let’s look at whether this is good for rugby or if it’s bad for it. Is it a referee problem, or is it teams pushing the envelope too far?”
World Rugby’s proper process
Peyper admits that he wasn’t aware of the full depth of the analysis and research conducted before a change in the lawbook is implemented during his officiating days, but he does now, since he and Springboks assistant coach Felix Jones sat on the committees.
“The two of us sit on various committees where we do alignment and feedback,” he continued.
“In the old days, people thought that it was the referees who made all the changes; they got into a room, drank a few whiskeys, and decided, ‘Well, this is good for the game and we change it’. I thought so until I got to this level, where World Rugby actually has a proper process. It should be anchored to the charter.
“The annual conference, the Shape of the Game, which will be sometime during the Six Nations, where various stakeholders, including referees, elite coaches, high performance managers, doctors, physios, and S&C coaches, will be there, giving feedback.”
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The former match official further explained that there is only one exception when World Rugby will make a change to the law quickly, and that is when it comes to player safety.
“So, then changes are proposed, but unless it’s safety, unless it’s a clear safety item where everybody agrees we should change this now, like players diving at the legs, you can change that straightaway, but to change a law, World Rugby has a proper process of taking their time,” he added.
“So, a change sounds good; the merit of it sounds like it will be a positive impact on the shape of the game, but then they take it to a competition to trial. So it’s not law changes immediately, they take it to the Varsity Cup or Super Rugby a takes on a law trial and then they put all of that through the competition and when they analyse the data at the end you see whether it’s had the desired effect and most of the times you you realise that rugby laws don’t shouldn’t change easily because of the unattended consequences.
“The things that we hadn’t foreseen when we discussed this, we thought we were going to speed up the game, but instead, we are slowing down the game, having more ball in play, but it’s boring, or it’s not good for the game. It could be taking the contest away instead of stimulating the contest.”
Erasmus claps back
Erasmus has repeatedly emphasised the need for a global calendar and believes that it’s particularly important when it comes to law changes, as certain countries would usually get the upper hand because it would not be implemented at the same time.
“Because we don’t have a global season for the Springbok team, we don’t play for seven months, so if you trial something in Super Rugby or in Six Nations and want to apply something now in June, there are consequences for some teams who have played under that and teams who have,” he said before turning his attention to Robinson’s remark.
“Somebody made a statement the other day that we have to accept the process of getting law changes in is too prolonged. It’s too long.
“I think that’s a ridiculous statement because you can’t not have a test lab or due diligence because of the consequences. A team that has money and sponsorships and is successful and where they’re ranked in the world, if somebody decides, ‘Oh, the game’s boring, let’s decide that’, then the game is going to quickly go off the charter.”
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Peyper concluded: “So there are law labs as well, so if it’s a specialist area, let’s say the scrum, they will have a little lab where they put two scrum packs in and put different sensors and measures on them so they can actually measure the impact.
“They’ll get stats and data from that, and then they’ll take it somewhere else.
“There are various forums, and they give feedback on the shape of the game on what they’ve seen, and then people have to discuss that and question it. Challenge it because if a law change happens too easily, then often we get something that we didn’t want.”
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