The following Law Variations had been approved by the IRB and would be adopted in 2010:
Law 6 - Assistant Referees allowed
Law 19 - Kicking directly into touch from ball played back into 22 equals–no gain in ground
Law 19 - Quick Throw permitted in any directionexcept forward
Law 19 - Positioning of playerin opposition to the player throwing-in to be two metres away from lineout and the line of touch
Law 19 - Pre-gripping of lineout jumpers allowed
Law 19 - Lifting in the lineout allowed
Law 19 - Positioning of Receiver must be two metres away from lineout
Law 20 - Five-metre off sideline at the Scrum
Law 20 - Scrumhalf offsideline at the Scrum
Law 22 - Corner Posts no longer touch in goal
The following Law Variations had not been approvedby the IRB
Law 17 - Maul-Head and Shouldersnot to be lower than hips
Law 17 - Maul- Pulling down the Maul
Law 19 - Freedom for each team to determine Lineout Numbers
Summary of the Law Variationsin 2010:
PenaltyKick sanctions will again be applied at tackle and ruck
Players will no longer be able to defend against the driving maul by pulling it Down
The team not throwing in at the lineout cannot have more players participating in the lineout than the throwing team
The IRB has approved Unions to employ Law Variations implementing rolling substitutions and addressing uncontested scrums.
The ARU’s Laws Advisory Group (LAG) had met to discuss how these provisions would be applied across Australia.
The ARU had circulated a recommendation and requested feedback, based on the feedback the LAG has reached a decision and the final decision would be circulated in the coming weeks.
