Many if not all rugby people will be aware that the professional game in New Zealand has started again.    The Super Rugby Aotearoa tournament will run for 10 weeks and is being televised on Sky Sports.  Whilst this is no doubt a great relief to those that have been missing there rugby and are lucky enough to have Sky Sports, it will surely have raised some questions amongst community referees.

Perhaps as a result of Covid-19 or perhaps it is just one of those things, there is a new emphasis on the breakdown and how it is to be refereed
“We’re not changing the laws of the game, we’re being stricter about how we referee them”. This is the summation from NZR national referee manager Bryce Lawrence, on how his team of referees will rule the existing laws at the breakdown. He stated they would be applied more strictly to create faster, attacking ball and, a fairer contest.

 The question that is surely on the lips of most community referees is why have the laws not been applied correctly in the past!  The follow up has to be, will other laws such as the put-in at the scrum also be subjected to “refereeing adjustments”