New rules for new season

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33791, 13 March 1975, Page 12

New rules for new season

Teams trailing by as many as nine points need no longer despair that their cause is lost — even though there may be only a minute or so remaining to fulltime — during the coming club and representative Rugby league season. An addition to the code’s rule book this year gives referees the right to restart play with a penalty, rather than a place kick, if a serious infringement occurs against a side when one of its players is in the act of scoring a try.

During the 1972 World Cup tournament in France, one of the local referees,

Mr Claude Teisseire — with a scant regard for the laws as they were then written — decided that he could not let the Australian forward, John Elford, get away with an attempted late tackle of the British wing, John Atkinson. After Terry Clawson had converted Atkinson’s try, Mr Teisseire ran back to centre field and awarded Britain a penalty from the half-way line — which Clawson promptly goaled for another two points. The “seven-point try” was born. Now official provision has been made to dissuade defenders from committing grevious acts when frustrated by the concession of a try. In fact, the new rule has been taken a step further and the subsequent penalty will be awarded only 10 metres from the goal-posts, making another two points almost inevitable.

Conceivably, a team lagging nine points in arrears could score and convert a try right on full-time, be given a penalty in such an advantageous position and take a tap kick. A second try, and conversion, would put it ahead.

While the seven or 10point tries are likely to be very rare occurrences, spectators will have more opportunities to judge the worth of two other laws that have been introduced since the International Board meeting in Sydney last July. The board members, seeking a solution for the

differing interpretations be- • tween the four-tackle rule , as played in New Zealand . and France and the six- ' tackles of Britain and Aus- ' tralia, decided that future test and tour matches would be held under fivetackles. New Zealand’s Rugby league council has decreed * that all fixtures, club and „ provincial as well as inter- * national, will adhere to * this latest variation. Pre- 1 sumably, teams in possession of the ball will have * somewhat more breathing 2 space to set up attacks rather than be rushed into * indiscriminate kicking. A system of temporary ■' orderings off — referred to as the ‘sin-bin” in Auck- w land and the “chilly-bin” in •« Canterbury — has also been instituted for club grades and premier repre- “ sentative games. Offenders will spend short periods of time cooling their heels behind their opponent’s £ dead-ball line until allowed v to return by the referee. The “chilly-bin” was ex- ,■ perimented with in the 17- v years and schoolboy sec- .-« tions in Canterbury last season, with apparent sue- S cess. A more minor alteration in the rules concerns the < occasions when a drop-kick is to be used to restart play from the 22-metres line. The only occasion a ? match will be resumed by this means will be follow- i. ing an unsuccessful penalty > attempt at goal; a tap kick ’ by the defending team will ' apply at all other times. /t