Three new international rugby rules being unveiled on the upcoming series in Europe have been given the thumbs up by All Blacks veterans Andrew Hore and halfback Piri Weepu.
Rule number one: The ball has to be used within five seconds of it being made available at the back of a ruck with a warning from the referee to use it. If the ball isn’t used then a scrum will be awarded to the opposition.
Two: The referee’s scrum engagement message will be “crouch, touch, set”, taking a step out of the process.
Three: An extra prop forward is to be fielded on the reserve bench, extending the team size from 22 to 23.
Hooker Hore and Weepu say there haven’t been any extra sessions at trainings to polish up on the changes prior to the Test against Scotland at Murrayfield on Monday (AEDT) but both agree the All Blacks will benefit.
“We like to speed the game up anyway, so I don’t think it’s going to play too much into the game,” Weepu said.
“We haven’t discussed any scenarios yet, if we have to close the game out if the ball’s only allowed to sit there for five seconds, but I think most of the boys have a good enough understanding to know that it can’t sit there for that long and if we’re mucking around, to expect the ball if they’re close enough to the ruck.”
Hore said the All Blacks have a trick up their sleeve which the Scots won’t learn about until game day.
“At this stage we have a little bit of a plan and hopefully it works.”
Hore also believes having an extra prop on the bench will keep the competition rolling for the full 80 minutes.
“We’ve had a few issues with reset scrums in the past so anything we can do to sort that would be good.
“(Loosehead specialist) Wyatt Crockett’s pretty pumped about it, he’s been the extra prop for a while, so he’s going to get out there – I think it’s going to be pretty good.”
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