Four World Cup winning legends, now TV pundits for the 2011 Rugby World Cup

To help you through the 48 matches, ITV has put together a sensational line-up of former winners as part of their coverage team, which will be fronted by Steve Rider. So sit back and hear the views of a quartet who have won more than 250 caps between them. Over the World Cup, these four legends will share with you their views on the tournaments’ big topics…

If you could change a Rugby law, what would it be and why?
Francois Pienaar: I’d reduce the number of points for a penalty from three to two, although it would be made clear that any player deliberately killing the ball would get a warning first and then a yellow card for the second infringement.
At the same time I’d increase the number of points for a converted try to eight. We need to make rugby more open and running because it’s tries that people want to see.

Sean Fitzpatrick: The laws themselves are pretty good at the moment but the thing I’d really like is for referees to have some consistency, especially at the breakdown. In football it’s easy because every referee has to referee the game according to the rules, but there’s too much of a grey area in rugby and interpretations differ too widely.

Michael Lynagh: The blight on the game is the scrum, and in particular the time it takes to reset the scrum. So I’d like to see the way the scrum is controlled improved because increasingly it takes three or four resets each scrum and that’s not good as a spectacle.

Do you agree with their views? Go to our Facebook page and let us know what you think…

This article appeared in the October 2011 issue of Rugby World Magazine.

Find a newsagent that sells Rugby World in the UK

Or perhaps you’d like a digital version of the magazine delivered direct to your PC, MAC or Ipad? If so click here.

For Back Issues Contact John Denton Services at 01733-385-170 visit