ELVs — Early Thoughts
The World Continues to Spin on Its Axis
Well, we’ve had a couple of rounds of play and, thankfully, implementation of the Stellenbosch Laws hasn’t mutated the Super 14 into some bloated version of the NRL. The games are moving at a more rapid pace, there seems to be more clarity at the breakdown, and — perhaps best of all — the incessant babbling from the referees seems to be waning. That being said, the quality of play needs to improve as time goes on; too many handling errors and too much aimless, inaccurate kicking.
Maybe the best of the new laws is the establishment of the offside line for players who are not in the scrum (or are not the scrum-half) at 5 meters behind the hindmost foot of the scrum. This means we’re going to see a lot more creativity and speed from the set-pieces off of attacking scrums. Joe Rokocoko’s try against the Chiefs in the first round gives a glimpse of what’s to come (hopefully).