News

Big Ted's big ELV qualms

July 31 2008

The ELVs are set for introduction in the northern hemisphere leagues in August, with France's Top 14 kicking it off on August 26.

The Guinness Premiership will kick off under the ELVs a week later, and as most are discovering, the tight games which used to be the hallmark of the English league may become a thing of the past.

So what of the hulking dinosaurs who are such celebrated heroes of the English game? Not much, according to the southern unions desperate to push the raft of new laws through.

But the north is defending its stance staunchly, and now England prop Andy Sheridan has joined the defence witnesses, saying the game doesn't need to change.

"I think they (the lawmakers) are messing about with the game a bit." said England's most-prized front-row asset to a local newspaper, the Stockport Express.

"I'll have to see how they go and just adapt to it but I hope it doesn't change the game too much.

"Personally, I think it's quite good that we've got all different shapes and sizes in rugby but you can see it going the route of everyone having to conform to a certain size if the rules keep progressing as they are."

Sheridan spoke the day after top referee David Pearson visited Sharks' training base and refereed a rugby session to help the team.

Sharks' Head Coach Kingsley Jones has been teaching the players the new laws and is remaining positive about their implementation, saying the teams would just have to get on with it.

"There's no point being unhappy, they are here until next November, those coaches who are negative will get left behind," he said.

"It's a new opportunity. You have to look at it positively and try new things. I think we've got players who will excel under these new laws."

"I think it will be a really interesting challenge from a coaching point of view. It's a big change in the rules.

"The line-out will be very different, the defence can put as many players as they want in the line-out and what has been found so far is the attacking team is struggling to win possession.

"This year the line-out will be different for everybody and the coaches who find ways to adapt have got a head start.

"You can now collapse the maul as long as it's done legally - we did that very well last year and conceded the least yards in the Premiership from driving mauls. It will also be very difficult to defend a scrum 10-metres from the tryline.

"But it's early days - these are just my predictions - we'll see what happens."