The New 50-22 Law

The Law: Rule change would see attacking team awarded a lineout if they kick the ball from their own half and it bounces into touch in opponents' 22.

Rationale: To create space by forcing players to drop back out of the defensive line in order to prevent their opponents from kicking for touch.

The trials that have already occurred have shown success in the aims of the law and more were supposed to have been taken in the USA but sadly not due to C-19. Trials in Australia where long range kickers tend to thrive have been promising, creating attacking options from teams having to use more players to defend more space – now there are some issues that need to be addressed.

Firstly do you have a kicker in your team who can accurately and with range achieve the required distance?

Secondly do you have a good lineout to profit from the long range kick?

Thirdly, will going for this option reduce the number of times you use your wide attacking plays? Will you go for the kick rather than the running with the ball option? Opposition teams may start to drop 3 players in which case running options may become more popular.

In this week’s article we will focus more on the kicking options, starting with what type of kick you could be using. For many players the end on end kick will not have the range. The old fashioned spiral kick will need to be used due to nature of its trajectory and the roll of the ball as it hits the ground, end on end kicks tend to kick up.

How we strike the ball in a consistent and accurate way is essential to us coaching the player how to kick long accurately. We can be technical and have fun with this – repeated kicking is important for motor skill development but so is context and when and why we kick, so playing games and having scenarios to practice is important:

Is the 50-22 Law going to be of use for the amateur game or the professional game where teams will have a consistent kicker who can execute the long range kick off both feet. So aspiring to play the 50-22 Law as an amateur team might sound like an attacking option but might just leave you open to counter attack if you fail to achieve the target.

Playing kicking games is fun and important for learning. Context is king

The other law variations are based around the breakdown and tackle height. The breakdown laws haven’t been changed but they are going to be officiated with more accuracy so watch out for the next article. Waist height tackles I think will come in at age grade rugby.