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Nigel Owens backs Guscott's populist law change proposal
By Ian Cameron
Arguably rugby union top's referee - Nigel Owens - has backed a radical law change proposal put forward by former England centre turned pundit, Jeremy Guscott.
In his WalesOnline column Owens said that a dramatic reduction of the number of replacements in the game would benefit the sport as a whole.
Currently, eight substitutes are allowed, and players who have been tactically replaced can come back on to replace injured players.
Owens believes both the number and the replacement process should be changed.
"This is something I have been saying for a long time. Every question and answer session I do I am always asked which law I would like to change and I always say I would like to see the substitution law changed," stated Owens.
Guscott suggested just three replacements, which Owens doesn't quite back.
"I am not sure if going down to three as Jeremy suggested is doable at the top end of the game but I certainly do believe the game will benefit from reducing it to at least five, even four," suggested Owens.
"Even if they don't reduce the number of substitutions the game would certainly benefit from changing the way they are used, whether that's substitutions having to be done at half time or injury substitutions only, but not for tactical reasons. This is something that really needs to be looked at I feel.
"If you risk taking somebody off that's not injured and another player who comes on gets injured, that other player is out of the equation. This will help close the loophole then if players are not genuinely injured.
"But we need to make sure we don't put any player on the field in jeopardy by forcing them to play on with an injury and put themselves at risk of a more serious injury," said Owens.
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Latest Comments
I guess the other option would be to start ALB, he's looked good in the 12 so far when he starts and sets up those outside him. But that would mean putting the vice captain on the bench, which is unlikely. Another option would be to drop Reiko to the bench and play Proctor, though he's gone home so that's not going to happen either.
Both of those players just offer more of the soft distribution skills good centres learn from playing their careers there. Unfortunately that's what's lacking with the current combo.
Go to commentsWhatever let's see if this load of waffle is still valid in 2 years time. ABs will rise we have a lot of new talent coming through. The NPC was the highest standard for years. The game is changing to suit the fast pace we like to play. We get to play the Springboks more, including the franchises, which will make us better! Overall I am optimistic. I will add having watched the England game multiple times we made most of the play. England are an awesome physical team, but you can expect the All Blacks to get better and better at executing the chances. It could easily have been 5 tries to one instead of 3 to 1.
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