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New Premiership Rugby Laws for 2012-2013

Premiership Rugby has introduced new rugby law changes to the 2012-13 season.

The trial laws were developed by the IRB over six months in collaboration with Premiership Rugby and the RFU.

With the new Aviva Premiership season being well under away, here’s a brief guide to the key changes this season:

  • Concussions: Medics allowed to identify potential concussive injury, remove a player from the field of play and spend 5 minutes accessing his condition before they need to make a decision of whether he needs to leave the field or he does not (see our recent and relevant article about rugby substitutions here).
  • Television Match Official: There has been an extension of the TMO, who will now we able to intervene for instances of foul play and the referee will be able to revert to the TMO for incidents within the field of play prior to the scoring of a try.
  • The Scrum: The Scrum engagement process has changed. Previously the referee would call “crouch, touch, pause, engage” and that has been reduced to a three-step process of “crouch, touch, set”.
  • The Ruck: To address concerns of the past few years that teams can stall and slow a game down by holding the ball at the back of a breakdown, now when a referee calls “ruck” the team must play the ball within 5 seconds.

Watch the video below to hear Premiership Rugby’s Director Phil Winstanley give you a quick run-through of the new rule changes and hear comments from Premiership rugby players and coaches, including: Harlequins’ Director of Rugby, Conor O’Shea, Sale Sharks Captain, David Seymour and London Welsh Captain Jonathan Mills.

It remains to be seen what kind of effect these new Premiership Rugby laws will have on the Premiership as we know it and whether some teams will be able to take advantage of the new rules.

What do you think?
Let us know your opinion of these rules below.


About Ellaine

Ellaine is the founder of FRN and author of "Mini and Youth Rugby: Complete Guide for Coaches and Parents" (published October 2015). She has been playing rugby union for over 10 years in the UK and the US for teams including Oxford University Blues, London Wasps, Henley, NOVA, and GWU. She has recently developed a love for rugby 7s and has played on several international rugby 7s teams. She also enjoys playing touch rugby and regularly plays for the FRN Mixed Touch Rugby team. She is passionate about helping others develop a love for rugby. View all posts by Ellaine

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