Rugby evening headlines as Wales to contend with new law and Six Nations make major TikTok announcement

Here are the latest rugby evening headlines for Thursday, January 27.

A new "brake foot" scrum law will be trialled during this year's Six Nations tournaments to prevent degenerative neck injuries developing.

All hookers will have to have one foot clearly forward when binding in the "crouch, bind, set" instruction from the referee, The Times reports, to act as a brake on scrums and prevent "axial loading", an unintended consequence of World Rugby's scrum calls change from 2013 which moved from "crouch, touch, pause, engage" to "crouch, bind, set".

While "axial loading" was banned ahead of the 2019 World Cup, packs variably still lean forward on the "bind" call - which sends a force through the spine and neck of the hooker - to try and gain an advantage before the referee calls "set".

A free-kick will be awarded to punish any packs found to axial load their hooker.

Wales and Worcester hooker Scott Baldwin told The Times: "It feels like your neck is about to snap. When I went to see the surgeon, the surgeon said that since the law change [in 2013] he has seen a significant increase in operations on the upper necks of hookers."

The men's, women's and under-20s Six Nations will all trial the law.

Six Nations has announced a major four-year deal with TikTok which will see the women's tournament get a title sponsor for the first time and - hopefully - rugby reach a drastically larger audience.

The tournament will be known as the TikTok Women's Six Nations from this year to 2025, while the social media platform will also be involved with the men's and U20s competitions plus the Autumn Nations Series.

TikTok describes itself as “the leading destination for short-form mobile video”.

The deal, the financial value of which has