Tonight’s rugby news as World Rugby announce body cams, new laws and changes to World Cup draw

Here are the latest rugby headlines on Monday, July 24.

Referees to wear body cameras

Referees are set to wear body cameras during this summer’s World Cup warm-up matches.

All officials at this year’s Summer Nations Series will be encouraged to wear the cameras, which are solely intended to enhance the viewing experience for those watching television coverage, providing a POV angle of the game as it unfolds.

The innovation could be used to show tries being scored up close, as well as tackles, conversations between players and officials and other big incidents.

However, the cameras – which have featured in rugby previously – will not be used to help with making decisions, such as whether a try should be disallowed or whether foul play has occurred.

They may, however, be used in post-match disciplinary hearings, such as Johnny Sexton’s, in which no one present was able to accurately recall the comments he allegedly made to Jaco Peyper and his refereeing team.

Julie Paterson, Director of Rugby at Six Nations Rugby, said that the re-introduction of ‘Ref Cam’ would help broadcasters provide new angles and perspectives to the game to help boost the viewing experience.

“For fans, we want to bring them as close to the action as possible,” she said. “Innovations like Shot Clock and Ref Cam can do this. Everyone in the game wants to keep developing and pushing new initiatives, and the Summer Nations Series offers a great opportunity to deliver in this area.”

New World Cup innovations

A shot clock for kicks at goal and a “bunker” review system for cards will also be in place during the summer warm-up matches, as well as at this year’s World Cup, the Times reports.

The shot clock is designed to speed up play and reduce time-wasting, with kickers given 90 seconds to hit a conversion and one minute to take a penalty. It was tested during the Six Nations, but not shown in stadiums or on television coverage – however, in France a clock will count down for every kick at goal and will be shown on big screens and during live broadcasts.

Meanwhile, the bunker trial, which was used during the World Rugby Under-20 championship earlier this summer, will provide a new way of upgrading yellow cards to red cards, using a second TMO.

While referees will remain the lead decision makers during games, they will be able to refer any incident of foul play where a red card is not clear and obvious to a dedicated Foul Play Review Officer (FPRO).

The player in question will be sent to the sin-bin for ten minutes while the FPRO takes up to eight minutes to review the incident using all available technology and footage. If they deem the incident to be worthy of a red card, the player will not be able to return to the field, but if not they will be able to come back on as usual.

Commenting on the further innovations, Ms Paterson added: “Bringing the latest technology, processes and rugby focussed innovations into Six Nations Rugby competitions is a core part of helping drive the collective growth of the game. The likes of the Bunker Trial and Hawk-Eye will offer even more support to match officials and the decisions they make in the heat of a live match environment.”

Wales vs England

Wales take on England in the second game of the Rugby Summer Series. Fans can watch the game free by signing up to an Amazon Prime subscription here.

World Rugby promise changes after ‘horrendous’ draw

World Rugby chairman Sir Bill Beaumont has said changes will be made ahead of the 2027 Rugby World Cup after the draw for this year’s tournament was heavily criticised.

The pools for this year’s competition were drawn in December 2020, just under three years out from the first ball being kicked in France, with seedings decided on what the world rankings were at the start of 2020, due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

At that time, the new world champions South Africa topped the standings, with New Zealand, England and then Grand Slam winners Wales making up the top seeds. However, since then, there has been considerable change at the top of the world rankings, with Ireland and France now topping the pile.

This change has meant that the draw for the 2023 competition is now lopsided, with the current top five teams in the world in the same half of the draw and only two of them able to make it through to the semi-finals.

The situation has been described as “horrendous” and “nonsense” by pundits and Beaumont has admitted he understands the complaints and will be looking at implementing changes ahead of the next tournament in Australia.

“The reason why the pool draws were made earlier was because of the surety of the host cities and knowing where teams were going, which is very important,” he explained to The Breakdown.

“[But] what we will be doing is looking to have the pool draw as late as possible so that you get more consistency around the balance in a pool.There’s always going to be one pool which is tougher than the others”.

“When we go to Australia, we will be looking at how late we can make the pool draw.”

Inspirational ex-WRU director smashes target

Heroic former WRU commercial director Craig Maxwell has continued his fundraising efforts after raising more than £300,000 for charity in a series of sporting challenges

The 41-year-old was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer in September last year and has been told he has between 10 and 18 months to live.

In a brave interview with MailOnline last week, Maxwell, the current chief commercial officer of the Six Nations, described how the devastating diagnosis had rocked him, his wife Tracey and two children, 12-year-old Isla and eight-year-old Zach.

But his response to the news has been inspirational and he has already smashed his target of raising £300,000 for the QuicDNA Project – which aims to shorten the length of time patients in Wales are diagnosed with cancer thanks to the use of liquid biopsies.

To help raise this money, Maxwell ran the London Marathon and cycled from Cardiff to Tenby earlier this year, while he kicked off his latest effort on Monday as he set off on a bike ride from the Welsh capital to Paris.

The 30-strong group involved in the ride left the Principality Stadium earlier today, with the 41-year-old’s family there to cheer him on.

“It’s important not to be defeated,” Maxwell told the Mail last week. “When we told my children I had terminal cancer, the first thing my daughter said was ‘Daddy, I know you’ll do everything to fight this. I’m so proud of you.’

“It made me the proudest man ever. I want to show our children that even in the face of adversity you can – and will – pick yourself up and make a difference.”