Popular referee Nigel Owens says rugby’s new Laws are NOT working to improve the game.
Owens, who hung up his whistle two years ago, has come up with six possible changes to encourage expansive rugby.
#1. Dump the 20 minute red card
Owens wrote: “The deterrent to change player behaviour is much more effective if the team is down to 14 men for the rest of the game than if just for 20 mins. Drop the speeding fines a few quid and one point on your licence and you won’t be as careful keeping to the speed limit will you…
“Many are taking the risk by illegal clear-outs at ruck and upright or reckless tackles. So the 20m RC is not going to help with changing this behaviour.
“We are talking illegal tackles here which are foul play, not a legal tackle. A player should not be sent off if there is contact to the head and his actions were not illegal or totally reckless or stupidly careless.”
#2. Stricter refereeing of RUCK’s
Owens wrote: “To make it more effective, we need to be stricter about players staying on their feet at the contact area. Jackallers are going in to win turnovers and just being dragged to the ground by the attacking side, which means the jackaller has to let the ball go.
“The attacking side commits two, sometimes three players to the ruck to secure possession, but the defending side often decide not to continue contesting, and you end up with more defensive players on their feet, fanning out to cover the space, than attackers.
“It’s illegal to pull a player down in that contact area, so until the officials deal with that more strictly, we are not going to see the full benefits of the 50:22 in terms of creating more space for attacking rugby. The law should stay, and the ruck law should be refereed.”