Super Rugby Trial to Reduce Rugby Tennis

A bit surprised, but here is a Super Rugby trial I like.  Really not so much new, as reverting to the older kick offside rules.  Instead of allowing players in an offside position during kicks in open play to get involved after the ball is caught and moved a bit, going back to the kicker needing to put people onside.  To me, this is a good idea and may actually change the skills needed for kickers and the back three a bit.  Or if not change the skills, emphasize some other others.  And will change game planning for sure.  And should make any England supporter happy.  

Charlie Morgan in The Telegraph wrote:Super Rugby Pacific are aiming to tweak the offside law to avoid the static kicking exchanges that have blighted games in the Premiership and the Six Nations recently and to promote running from the back-field.

Two separate clauses in law 10.7, which have become known as the ‘Dupont Law’ after the France scrum-half Antoine Dupont popularised the ploy in Test matches, allow players to advance from offside positions after an opponent has caught a kick and either moved five metres or passed the ball.

This has brought about jarring situations during matches where players have camped in the middle of the pitch, a 12-kick rally during the recent West Country derby between Gloucester and Bath being a prime example. On Saturday at Murrayfield, Scotland and France engaged in a similar back-and-forth. Kickers were standing stock-still in the back-field and dummying passes so as not to allow opponents to advance.

Super Rugby Pacific....want to do away with these exchanges and will move to ensure that players must be put onside by a kicker running past them. Telegraph Sport understands that World Rugby is yet to ratify any change, but the competition’s chair, Kevin Molloy, explained that feedback from fans, coaches and players had encouraged the development.

No kidding!

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/rugby-union/2024/02/13/super-rugby-trial-to-scrap-dupont-law-kicking-dominance/