ANALYSIS >> PAUL REES REPORTS ON WORLD RUGBY’S ATTEMPT S TO BROADEN THE SPORT’S APPEAL BUT CAN SEE PROBLEMS AHEAD
IT HAS become an annual event this decade for World Rugby to issue a series of law tweaks designed to speed up the game and make it more accessible for a new audience, primarily television viewers.
Last year the emphasis was on making sure kicks at goal were taken within an allotted time span, 90 seconds for a conversion and a minute for a penalty “even if the ball rolls over and has to be placed again.” A shot clock was introduced with a kicker having to make contact with the ball before the countdown reached zero. The match clock is not stopped for the attempt to turn a try into seven points and with the average game in this year’s Six Nations producing close to five tries, it means more than seven minutes is ticked off the 80 when the ball is dead to the team that has just conceded.
“A player must not waste time,” was a law which World Rugby highlighted last year, with the reminder that the sanction for doing so was a free-kick. Yet a player can use a conversion in front of the posts as a means of winding down the clock by 90 seconds even though, allowing for celebrations after the score, it should take little more than one-third of that. Again, why is the clock not stopped so they there is no time for them to waste?
Referees were encouraged to make speedier decisions and limit referrals to the television match officials to when one was necessary, the rule on teams being ready to form a scrum within 30 seconds of the mark being made was reinforced, as was the one that stipulated teams had to set up for a lineout without delay. There was to be a reduction in the number of water carriers and the times they were allowed to run on to the field of play reduced.
This year’s set of directives had “a specific focus on a central mission of driving fan acquisition and retention by increasing relevance and accessibility”. To decode the management speak, it meant looking at change through the eyes of a spectator, though it did not distinguish between those who paid to watch a match and those who did so in front of a television set.
“Delegates focused on addressing barriers to fan engagement – dead ball time, the elements that interrupt the flow of the game, technology, the terminology and marketing of the sport as a whole,” ran World Rugby’s statement.
There were five elements to the initiative, starting with speed and flow, aspects which could keep the game flowing, including speeding up the ‘use it’ order by referees at the breakdown, tackling scrum resets, expanding the remit of the shot clock and exploring moves to provide the scr
