As from August the 1st these are the ELVs that we are now going to implement together with my personal opinion on them.

Assistant Referees.

Qualified Referees appointed by Governing bodies to run the line will no longer be called touch judges, and they will be able to assist the Referee with any aspect of the game that the Referee requests that would normally be his sole decision. At top matches it happens anyway, so this is just giving a basis in law to the practice. If the person running the line is NOT a qualified referee, then they remain a TJ with nothing more than line duties.

I have no problem with that one.

Defence of the Maul

 Players will be permitted to bring a maul to ground provided that they do so by dragging it down between the shoulders and hips. Current law states that to deliberately collapse a maul is illegal. This will effectively kill the English forwards game, who have been absolute masters at the rolling maul.

I see it as negative.

Scrum offside

 At present the offside line for those players not taking part in the scrum is the hindmost feet of their players in the scrum. The new law will mean it is now 5 metres back from the hindmost foot. This is to prevent backs from lining up a "blitz" defence giving more room for attacking backs.

I think this might be positive and will benefit sides with attacking flair.

Kicking from inside 22

If the ball is passed back or carried back into the 22 and then kicked directly to touch, then the lineout will take place in line from where the ball was kicked.

At present, if the ball is carried back and kicked to touch then the lineout takes place on the 22 line. So in other words, you will no longer be able to kick direct to touch from the 22 (except the penalty) and be able to gain ground.

No problem with that one.

Quick throw in

At present a quick throw in must be thrown in straight. From August, providing it does not go forward, it can be thrown toward the thrower in's own dead ball line.

No problem with that one.

Lineout

At present the throwing in side determines the numbers of players in the lineout. From August, either side can have as many players in the lineout as they wish, provided they don't have less than the minimum number.

About time too!

The opposing hooker no longer has to stand between the five metre and touch line

No problem.

Corner posts/flags

At present the corner posts/flags form part of the "touch in Goal" which means that a player touching them in the act of diving for a try has it disallowed and a 22 drop out awarded.

The posts/flags will no longer be part of the touch in goal and so a player touching them will not be deemed to be touch in goal provided he does not have a part of his body on or over the touch line and in contact.

Again, I have no problem with that one.

There are some other bits of tinkering the main one of which is that penalties will only be awarded for offside and foul play, every other offence will incur free kicks. (which might upset Jonny!)

Thanks Tony. 

Length of the linout - what decides how far across the field a lineout can stretch, and is there a maximum length specified.  Will "linout forwards " be able to stand far enough across field to mark the opposing fly half and inside centre ?

Will sides choose to take scrums rather than free kicks so that they can tie in the opposition's forwards rather than let them spread across in defence.  If that becomes common it will make a mockery of punishing offences deemed to warrant more than just a scrum. 

I'm less happy than you seem to be about the overall effect.  I think the trend of these changes is to "speed up" the game.  This is wanted by the Australians in particular because the game there is failing to compete with Rugby League so their solution is to make it more like League, although in the NH Union has been gaining in popularity relative to league. 

Still looking forward to the season though.

Point 1

Players participating in the lineout, however many, (minimum two from each side) must stand between the five and fifteen metre lines as is now.

Why I am pleased with this change is that it will prevent sides attempting to catch the opposition out by having too many and will kill dead the practice of delaying the forming of a lineout by arriving late to the line of touch.

Point 2

Sides can opt for scrums in lieu of both free kicks and penalties now and generally will do so if they feel they have the advantage in the scrum and want to go for the maximum rather than kicking at goal for penalties. Point taken though that it might induce negative play, but then a good scrummaging side would not see opting for scrums as negative anyway.

I have to be fair, I too thought that the effect was intended to "speed up" the game, but having seen the changes I am more inclined to think that the intention is to make the game less "cluttered" thus leaving room for the flair.

If I am honest, Wales won the grand slam on DEFENCE this time, not so much attack, (as borne out by the fact that they only conceded two tries) which is completely alien to the traditions of the Welsh game.

Like you I am looking forward to the start of the season and we can only wait to see what will be the true effects of the ELVs.

Just because we are trailing them, doesn't mean to say that they WILL become permanent and in my view, that is certainly my hope for the Maul one, which I would wish to be dropped!

shame about the maul change. i think the current rule makes for interesting viewing and allows sides to compete in different areas erm....did that make sense; i was thinking of an argentina game where they were being outplayed but they came into their own with a 50m rolling maul for a score. the opposition then changed their tactics to try to prevent a maul forming.

now being able to collapse it stops movement. not a good thing imho.

I have just re-read my first post and realised an omission that might cause confusion.

When I said that you will no longer be able to kick directly into touch from inside your own 22, that is if the ball originated from outisde of it and your team was responsible for it ending up inside.

If the ball ends up in the kicker's 22 and the attacking team were responsible for it ending there, then the defender WILL be able to kick directly to touch and the lineout will take place where the ball crossed the line!