A countdown ‘shot clock’ timer on scrums, line-outs and kicks at aim might be launched to assist velocity up the sport earlier than the Rugby World Cup.
The game’s key stakeholders met final week to think about methods to enhance the move of worldwide rugby.
Different concepts embody enhancing the in-stadium fan expertise by broadcasting interactions between the referee and tv match official [TMO].
The proposals shall be thought-about by World Rugby over the approaching weeks.
Whereas this month’s males’s autumn sequence has produced some compelling matches, there has continued to be widespread disillusionment on the low ball-in-play time and the variety of stoppages per sport.
The fixed arrival on the pitch of water carriers may also be addressed by the sport’s authorities.
A countdown shot clock, displayed on the large screens, would encourage groups to restart with larger urgency from set-pieces, whereas kickers could be required to kick for aim inside the cut-off dates.
Whereas the bounds of 60 seconds for a penalty and 90 seconds for a conversion are enshrined in legislation, they’re hardly ever enforced, with kickers recurrently exceeding these instances.
The clock – which might be launched as quickly as subsequent yr – would assist lighten the load on referees.
A clock for kicks at aim is already in operation in France’s High 14.
World Rugby are additionally wanting right into a means of decreasing the period of time spent on TMO referrals, with the goal of a faster and extra binary system, as is the case in cricket’s Resolution Assessment System [DRS].
There’s additionally a will to higher interact the supporters in attendance by not solely broadcasting the interactions between officers over the stadium loudspeakers, but additionally explaining on the large display why an incident is being reviewed.
World Rugby will contemplate the concepts earlier than growing concrete proposals over the approaching weeks, with a view to creating adjustments within the brief time period with out the necessity to change legislation.
After final week’s assembly – which included a bunch of directors, head coaches and officers from the sport’s main nations – World Rugby boss Sir Invoice Beaumont labelled the convention as “step one in the direction of a reimagination of our sport”.
