While it's suddenly a faster game, coaches will remain fans of the mammoth front-rower - if he's an outstanding player, writes Phil Wilkins.

The changing face and enhanced speed of rugby union under the experimental laws were classically illustrated when the Lions hooker Willie Wepener sat down on the job during the Super 14 game against the Cheetahs in Bloemfontein.

Half an hour into the game, immediately after Wepener executed a thundering tackle, feisty referee Jonathan Kaplan stood over the 111-kilogram hooker and pronounced: "Do that again, and it's a free kick!"

The dismayed forward asked from his seat on the ground: "What for?"

"Sitting down after the play," Kaplan told him, interpreting Wepener's action as injury-feigning to bring about a stoppage in the game. "You have done it twice. Slowing down play."

Invariably and inevitably, players and coaches search for ways around new laws. The major question of the Super 14 is how best to sustain the pace of the new game and keep their big men on the field before exhaustion forces their replacements.

During last year's Australian Rugby Championship, the revolutionary Stellenbosch laws, or experimental law variations (ELVs), contributed to some thrilling, high-speed rugby. One fatigued player remarked that all he wanted for Christmas was "a new set of lungs".

A New Zealand coach estimated that some of his players were running an extra 1.5 kilometres in the second half of a game under the ELVs, with fatigue setting in early and tackles being missed.

Mammoth front-rowers are not yet extinct, but while some of the behemoths, perhaps suited to scrummaging and little else, have become a threatened species, there will always be room for a classy, big ball-playing forward.

Brian Melrose, head coach of the Australian under-20s team, said: "Definitively, the game will change. People will say it won't, but it will. Certainly, the big blokes who are extremely good will stay in the game and excel because they are just better footballers.

"New rules or no new rules, there is still a basic element to the game. If you have better players, you will win. There's no rocket science to it."

Melrose believes that, whatever innovations are introduced, a big, brilliant forward such as rugby league's Arthur Beetson will always find a place in any team.

"I am sure if you watch [Queensland's 130kg] Rodney Blake playing this year, he will still be a force.

"The outstanding big man can still be there. You might be able to carry one, but can you carry a few big blokes? That will be difficult.

"The fatigue element is huge. It will force certain developments. Therefore, some players will have to become a few kilos lighter for the kicking game and counter-attack.

"That doesn't mean they will all have to transform themselves. The set-piece element of the game in scrum and maul is still there, albeit that possession sources have changed."

Great loose-head Os du Randt, all 125kg of him, has retired after propping South Africa to two World Cups. Although the ELVs were not involved in the tournament in France last year, it was significant he remained on the field until the 'Boks gained victory.

Like Melrose, John McKee, the 1999-premiership Eastwood coach, who coached for six years in Europe and was head coach of the Australian Rugby Championship-winning Central Coast Rays, is sure the scrum will never lose its significance, asserting the coach who selected a pack for sheer mobility would find himself under siege with rivals using a powerful set of forwards to capitalise on the scrummaging option available at the free kick.

Back in Bloemfontein, Kaplan's words ringing in his ears, Willie Wepener stayed on the field, made a long run down the wing, gained a scrum turnover and generally had a fine game in the Lions' 23-22 win. And in Brisbane, big Rodney Blake could have used an oxygen tank after an hour, but remained on the field to enjoy the Reds' 22-16 defeat of the Highlanders.