Rules aim to put rugby on front foot as World Cup looms

A new season of rugby beckons, yet in this World Cup year, not a whole lot has changed when it comes to the laws of the game.

In the season prior to the Rugby World Cup, law trials and variations will be kept to a minimum to allow for a certainty and consistency between coaches, players and the referee.

None of the stakeholders involved on matchday want any uncertainty at this point. Therefore, the law variations and trials that you would have seen across the last two seasons have been merely written into law or disregarded.

Most - if not all - of these variations and trials have been focused on player safety and reducing risk of illegal impacts, as well as trying to give the edge back to the attacking team.

While rugby is marketed and promoted across the world, the last thing that the game needs is for the defence to stifle any semblance of attacking flair. The hosts of next year's World Cup, France, will be the greatest advert for the game with their expert kicking game that leads to the unstructured attacking frenzy that they have returned to in the last couple of years.

There are only two new law trials and there’s really only one law trial pertaining to the rugby itself.

The brake foot in the scrum is a key area for referee’s to provide stability and more safety at the scrum. We’ve already seen sharp blasts of the whistle in preseason games to prepare the players for what is said to be a 'common sense approach’, yet in reality it seems like an early warning from referees to ensure a safe scrum.

Both hookers need to have their ‘brake’ foot on until the referee calls ‘set’, or they’ll be sanctioned with a free kick. Surely this will have zero real impact on the game as a spectacle, yet it will provide an added layer of