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World Rugby announce immediate law change due to Wales vs England match

Pascal Gauzere was the referee for Wales' clash with England (Photo by Dan Mullan/Getty Images)

World Rugby have made an immediate change to the laws of the game. The change stipulates that a match which has been paused to allow for a player to leave the field due to an HIA or a blood bin cannot resume until that player has been replaced.

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The amendment has arisen due to the events during last weekend’s match between Wales and England in Cardiff. Wales scored their only try of the match on 32 minutes when England had just 13 men on the pitch.

One of those absences was due to Anothony Watson’s sin-binning, but Willi Heinz was also being escorted from the field for an HIA at the time. From the penalty which saw Watson ejected, Wales took a quick tap and moments later George North crossed for the try.

The score drew plenty of outrage both during and after the match, which Wales won 13-6. Ben Youngs, who was waiting on the sideline to replace Heinz, was as surprised as any fans that the game was resumed as quickly as it was.

“Being down to 13 men is never ideal. Anthony came off and then the boys are in a huddle. Then Willi has come off and I’m waiting to be given the green light to go on,” Youngs said.

“Before I know it, Wales are off. It’s happened here and I dare say something like that will not happen again. It’s one of those things. There’s nothing as players that you can do about that except take the one lesson which is don’t switch off when there’s a penalty.”

The referee always had the discretion when to pause and resume matches but World Rugby has now seen fit to take some of that power away from the man in the middle.

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It comes too late for beaten England – but it means that the same antics won’t occur at the World Cup which kick-offs next month.

WATCH: England’s Eddie Jones claims that “maybe the yellow card should have gone to the referee”

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JW 1 hour ago
Scott Robertson explains the new halves pairing for the All Blacks ahead of France

More indecision and excuses from Razor.


You've given a spot at 6 to Finau whom you haven't even had the courage to use off the bench in the last two games. Now the young enforcer is going into a big much with no rugby, we should expect a similar result to how Aumua struggled to impact a game after he'd hardly been given any chances of the bench either.


Weve now dropped a back three player who also wasn't even given any game time off the bench for someone coming in cold when they really need to have been playing constantly to perform at their best. There are just so many better pictures that should have been present rather than this mickey mouse selection.


I really hope Finau can overcome this, it won't be the first time he's had to. How is the bench even made up? Could you not just have included these changes in the article as well? I actually like BB coming back in, it highlights how courageous he is after sitting out through another concussion that could just as easily sent him back into months of symptoms again.


Dmac was also off his game last week, as was Ratima, with the poor platform Razor and his team have been setting the players up with. He needs to freedom to clear his mind from the clutter that saw him make so many bad decisions last week. It will still probably be a net loss for the team performance not having him on from the start but it should be better for them in the long run if he's allowed to just come on late and play his game trying to claw things back for the team.


With Roigard starting that might prove an outlet for the team to actually get on top first however. Along with Ardie busting a gut in his new role and emptying the tank by halftime, and being replaced by another new star, might mean that Dmac is just icing on the cake at the end.

13 Go to comments
F
Flankly 1 hour ago
Jake White: If I was England coach, I’d have been livid

I am not an England fan, but still very disappointed at what Borthwick is serving up. Regardless of winning or losing, they should be executing the basics at a world class level. That was the reason they replaced Eddie with Steve. After two years England has not built the solid foundations that the RFU were presumably after. Its hard to see it as anything other than a coaching problem.


Having said that I really hope that Rassie has got his team fired up for the game. The Boks at maximum intensity and with no crises (eg red cards) would be expected to win this game. But it does not take much reduction in pressure for Bok teams to lose. The Boks lose when complacency sets in.


On Felix Jones, my guess is that they can't agree on a non-compete so they kept him on payroll for the duration of the Nov tests. The risk was that he would be hired by Rassie or Razor prior to the tests.


As relates to law tweaking, it feels like WR are more comfortable discussing changes in laws than insisting on implementation. For my money the biggest thing they could do is to be strict and consistent in officiating ruck behavior. In every game we see flopping, lazy lying, clearing of unbound players, making plays while off your feet, delays in placing the ball, side entry, offside line infringements, and similar nonsense. It's really really bad, and the WR attitude seems to be that we should turn a blind eye in pursuit of "flowing rugby". In truth it's just boring, because it randomizes the outcome.

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