Spiro Zavos, writing in The Sydney Morning Herald, believes that teams must adapt to the new Super 14 law interpretations quickly, or face a season in the doldrums.
"To understand what is going on we need a little theory. Many years ago I had a conversation with Danie Craven, a legendary Springboks halfback and coach.
"In the 1950s and 1960s Craven was Mr Rugby, the game's most influential administrator. He was in charge of writing the various changes to the laws. Craven told me that the laws were wrong. ''How do we know this?'' he said. ''Because, unlike the laws of soccer, they are too complicated and can't be written down on a single sheet of paper.''
"Craven, a double PhD, taught at Stellenbosch University (where the ELVs were devised and trialled). He told me he often experimented on law variations using students as guinea pigs. Craven learnt from this experimenting that if you changed one law, it would affect how others worked. He used the metaphor of pulling a thread from a jersey and the old garment ''unravelling''."
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