Back to Rugby's Past Via the Future?

The future direction of the game of rugby has been much-discussed, with the global integration of the hotly debated Experimental Law Variation (ELVs) set to begin in the very near future.

The ELVs have been extensively trialed in the SANZAR countries for close to a year now in both the Super 14 competition and the Tri Nations series. Adoption of the ELVs in these competitions have raised equal amounts of praise and scorn for their effect on the game in the Southern Hemisphere.

What the ELVs essentially seek to achieve is to speed up the game. Certain arcane rules which had penalty offences have been replaced with free kicks, hence cutting down on the importance of kicking at goal for points. Ball security is all the more important with the ELVs in place, as the pace of the game is quickened to an almost non-stop pace.

On one hand, you have those saying that adoption of the ELVs has brought about a faster and more entertaining game for spectators. For players, each player now has the opportunity to run with the ball and the demands for all-round skill levels for each player from No. 1 to 15 have increased.

Free kicks instead of penalties for some infringements have seen fewer shots at goal, and more free-flowing running. There are fewer 'ping pong' kicking competitions in the southern hemisphere competitions, and more 80m tries being scored.

That being said, there is another side to the coin. There has been substantial opposition to the ELVs, notably from the northern hemisphere. The European unions: England, France, Wales, Italy, Scotland and Ireland have all decided against adopting the ELVs at trial.

All international and club games are still being played in the "true" form. Their argument is that even without adopting the new ELVs, the games at these levels have quickened and level of fitness and skills required have also risen.

Another argument is that the ELVs are slowly transforming the game of rugby union into a modified form of rugby league, gradually killing off key foundations of the game of rugby that have shaped it for so long.

Technical areas such as the scrum, line out, and tactical kicking have been replaced with the more direct run-at-all-costs mentality of rugby league, some have argued.

Rugby union has always branded itself as a game for all shapes, sizes and skill sets. Props were traditionally the shorter and stronger players, and the wings were the guys with the speed. Everyone was able to play the game no matter their physical makeup.

The argument is that the southern (ELV enhanced) hemisphere style of play breeds more "robots"—players all in the same size and skill sets, enabling them to play the total running rugby they so love.

The game in England for example does see a lot more emphasis on the set pieces, and the old school props and hookers are still seen littered around the Guinness Premiership today.

It is ironic to think that there has been a glut of foreign players from Australia and New Zealand coming to England to ply their trade, and yet the call for a return to the establishment still remains.

Bearing this in mind, I saw a couple of clips the other day of games played by the magical Welsh and Barbarian teams of the 1970s. Mind you those were the days when the rules were even more suited to the wet weather trundle of the United Kingdom.

Players such as the great Gareth Edwards and JPR Williams ruled the roost then, with a style of play very much similar to today's Southern Hemisphere style of play. Watching them you would think that they were playing the ELVs even then!

Side-steps in their own half, props bursting through the line and one handed passing to another forward to score - all very expansive and total rugby if we use modern rugby jargon. I am sure that if this team at their prime played any super 14 team in 2009, they would probably teach the Super 14 team a thing or too about running rugby!

So the point here is this—the rules and laws of the game will shape how teams play the game tactically. A coach who does not use the rules to his advantage is not a good coach. But then, how you play the game, how the team reads and decides to run with the ball is the more crucial factor.

If a team seeks to run the ball, no matter the rules of the day, their expansive play will always show up against a more conservative team.