But tribal bias means only a selection of the new laws will get a run, writes Phil Wilkins.

AUSTRALIA'S World Cup-winning rugby coach Rod Macqueen remains optimistic that another year's trialling globally will lead to the implementation of a number of the experimental law variations.

While expressing regret at the "cherry-picking" of the ELVs, Macqueen said he felt overall it was a favourable result for international rugby.

"In a perfect world, it would have been good for all the ELVs to have been trialled," Macqueen said. "Many of the laws complement each other so that by trialling them all it would have made it much easier to draw a final conclusion based on sound statistics and facts."

It is the fervent hope of Macqueen, a member of the International Rugby Board's Laws Project Group, that before the worldwide trial ends next year on August 1, various nations will test all the ELVs as in last year's successful Australian Rugby Championship, rather than use segments of them as in the Super 14 tournament.

"Certainly in the northern hemisphere, the IRB are looking for competitions where we may play some of the more radical laws, like hands in the ruck and the offside line at the tackle," Macqueen said.

However, with the exception of Scotland, rugby countries in Europe have basically ignored the ELVs, despite widespread acceptance of the experiments in the ARC, claiming among other things that Australia was attempting to eliminate or devalue the scrum.

Subsequently, several national unions reached their conclusions based on assumption rather than undertaking an appropriate and professional process.

"The disappointing thing for me was that I believe that if coaches and officials had had the opportunity of better understanding the findings and statistical data from the 800 games played under the ELVs, we would have achieved a better result," Macqueen said.

One of the concerns of the game today is the lack of back-line moves and the introduction of one-off runners going to ground. Analysis over this time revealed interesting causes and effects.

"From current Test statistics, teams taking the ball into the breakdown retain it 95 per cent of the time, leading opposition coaches to instruct their players not to commit, but spread across the field in defence," Macqueen said.

The hands in the ruck recommendation, allowing players to handle the ball on the ground at the breakdown, formerly illegal, was greeted gleefully in the ARC by hard men such as Queensland's veteran international breakaway, David Croft.

Engagements for ball possession became ferocious in the tackle area while providing the referee with less decision-making, a swifter service to the backs and fewer stoppages. Hands in the ruck in the ARC and in a Scottish competition led to such aggressive play for possession at the breakdown that the ball was retained only 85 per cent of the time.

"The interesting thing from these competitions was that less retention gave the attacking team greater advantage," Macqueen said. "If they were skilful enough to get the ball out quickly, they invariably had more room to move, and the opposition were committing more players in defence. Consequently, more opportunity for tries."

Analysis of games also revealed that allowing the pulling down of the maul had resulted in no more injuries while making the game simpler and removing subjectivity from the referees' decisions. This rule change would also help negate the strategy of teams kicking to the corner, where the ensuing lineout and rolling maul often leads to a try.

Other ELVs to be retained are the introduction of an offside line five metres behind the hindmost feet of the scrum and making it illegal for the ball to be passed back into a team's own 22 and kicking into touch, both praiseworthy developments.

There are still numerous games to be played and much research to be undertaken, but Macqueen said: "Many people don't realise that these are still experimental laws, and it is fair to say we don't know whether some or all the laws are beneficial.

"Whatever the outcome, we must never lose sight of the importance of maintaining the uniqueness of rugby as a game for all shapes and sizes."