Law Application Guidelines

Excerpt from the guidelines:
In March 2020, a Law Application was published covering the whole of the breakdown.

At its heart, the principle was established “That the breakdown is coached according to the spirit of the laws, is played in a positive and accurate manner and is refereed consistently.”

On the whole, the coaching, playing and refereeing application has seen a cleaner, safer breakdown, especially aligned with the 2021 global law trials around protecting the lower limbs of the jackler, permitting the 1-man latch but outlawing the flying wedge of 2+ players pre-latched which have now been moved into full law.

However, feedback from players and coaches suggests one element needs renewed focus – side entry by both attacking and defending players.

There still remains injuries to the lower limbs due to the angles and speed of arriving players and there has also been a range of subtle, yet potentially dangerous injury when it comes to players being tipped within the breakdown.

We are therefore asking officials across the game to have a stricter focus and application of current guidelines and law with regards to direction and angle of arriving players at the breakdown, ruck and maul.

The key message is that players “square up” to enter the breakdown/ruck.