{"id":147046,"date":"2025-05-31T14:47:09","date_gmt":"2025-05-31T14:47:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/147046\/"},"modified":"2025-05-31T14:47:09","modified_gmt":"2025-05-31T14:47:09","slug":"nigel-owens-world-rugby-must-ditch-total-disaster-law-as-rassie-backed-planet-rugby","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/147046\/","title":{"rendered":"Nigel Owens: World Rugby must ditch ‘total disaster’ law as Rassie backed : Planet Rugby"},"content":{"rendered":"

Respected former Test referee Nigel Owens has revealed the law he would get rid of immediately, which he claims \u201chas not brought anything positive to the game\u201d.<\/b><\/p>\n

World Rugby continue to tinker with the sport in an attempt to make it more viewer friendly, with the Welshman in favour of some of them but not others.<\/p>\n

One of those which Owens<\/a> believes has negatively impacted rugby union is the goal line drop-out.<\/p>\n

It usually occurs when the ball is touched down by the defending team after it has been kicked beyond the tryline, but it will also be awarded if an attacker has been held up over the whitewash.<\/p>\n

\u2018I would get rid of it tomorrow\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m wary of changes being made just for the sake of increasing ball-in-play time,\u201d Owens wrote in his WalesOnline<\/a>\u00a0column, which is a metric that has also been questioned<\/a> by Springboks boss Rassie Erasmus.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cJust look at the goal line drop-out. To me, that is a total disaster and I would get rid of it tomorrow if I was in charge. It hasn\u2019t brought anything positive to the game, you\u2019re not seeing any less driving mauls or pick-and-gos.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has only brought negativity in the sense that the defence can throw bodies underneath a player and if they don\u2019t ground the ball, the defending team gets the drop out. It is a total punishment for the attacking team.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven though it\u2019s hugely important that rugby is a fair contest for both teams, when it comes to try scoring, the benefit of the doubt should always go to the attacking side.<\/p>\n

\u201cLook for a reason to give the try, rather than a reason not to, which seems to be the case these days with the endless TMO referrals.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nigel Owens weighs in on controversial New Zealand viral rugby clip after \u2018most bizarre try ever\u2019<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

Owens is also unhappy about World Rugby\u2019s seeming insistence on lessening the importance of the scrum following their amendment that prevents the set-piece when a free-kick has been awarded.<\/p>\n

It is one which has angered Springboks fans, who have accused the governing body of purposefully trying to take away a key strength of the back-to-back Rugby World Cup winners.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe same can be said for depowering the scrum. Nobody wants to see a scrum-fest, granted, but they are an important part of the game and we never see scrum fives anymore,\u201d Owens wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving a team that is strong at scrummaging and can push the other team back only adds to the excitement of a game.<\/p>\n

\u201cRugby is a game for all shapes and sizes and if the scrum is diminished further then, in two or three years\u2019 time, we will be watching rugby union games that may as well as be rugby league.\u201d<\/p>\n

British and Irish Lions positive<\/p>\n

Despite his frustration over those laws, Owens is happy to see British and Irish Lions organisers consider a way of finding a winner should their series with the Wallabies end in a draw.<\/p>\n

\u201cEarlier this week it was reported that the British and Irish Lions board is considering a proposal for sudden-death extra time to be introduced, in the event that a deciding third Test against Australia this summer finishes in a draw,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat change would see the first team to score in \u2018golden point\u2019 extra time win the match and it\u2019s something that I think would prove to be hugely exciting if it came about.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a bit of a disappointment when something as hotly anticipated as a Lions tour ends in a draw, so bringing in that bit of jeopardy and excitement to settle it can only be a good thing, in my opinion.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Springboks: Premiership star setting sights on convincing Rassie Erasmus after England hopes dashed<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Respected former Test referee Nigel Owens has revealed the law he would get rid of immediately, which he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":147047,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4102],"tags":[225,522,12,17421,7405,4151,2196,79,16,15,7406],"class_list":{"0":"post-147046","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-home-page","9":"tag-international","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-nigel-owens","12":"tag-rassie-erasmus","13":"tag-rugby","14":"tag-south-africa","15":"tag-sports","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom","18":"tag-world-rugby"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114602996043708884","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147046","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=147046"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147046\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/147047"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=147046"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=147046"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=147046"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}