We must be on guard so extremists don’t win the day
Some time ago, a young and ambitious rugby referee was eager to impress an old hand who had been sent to assess his progress.
The ref had just handled a game in which, to put it mildly, the offside rule had been more honoured in the breach than the observance.
“What did you think?” he inquired of the assessor afterwards, with a confident smirk on his face.
“Well,” the assessor started tentatively. “Not too bad, but I think you need to tighten up on the offside law.”
“Oh, I know all about the offside law,” the young ref retorted. “But today I wanted to let the game flow!”
The International Rugby Board, mercifully, has resisted similar laissez faire in its recent tampering with the laws to let the game “flow”.
In an attempt to make the game more attractive allegedly, teams in the Super 14 early next year — and possibly even the Tri-Nations later — will be allowed more room for attack by setting new offside lines at the tackle and set pieces (5m back rather than the last-feet-in- the-scrum rule), greater freedom with quick throw-ins and further restrictions in kicking for touch from inside the 22.
Penalty offences are to be reduced and free-kicks will be more regular.
These new laws (rugby, like cricket, has “laws” rather than “rules”) were enthusiastically put on trial at that great rugby laboratory in Stellenbosch, where the popular Friday-night koshuis league often uses experimental changes such as a clean catch anywhere on the field allows the catcher a free kick.
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