These word echoed through Franklin’s gardens at least fifty times today. The new world rugby law came in with a bang. Luke Pearce marshalled a dynamic Saints victory, but will the new rules help or harm the game?

Luke Pearce’s refereeing performance was almost solely focussed on the speed of the game. “Outstanding!” twitter users will cry. However it took barely 20 minutes for the drawbacks of the new style to rear their heads. The first scrum of the game saw Pearce hurry them the forwards to set at what was a visibly uncomfortable speed for them. Matavesi, one of the most underrated players in the world, had until this point been throwing himself around with abandon. He hurried to set himself up in the front row. His props scrambled to bind properly and Matavesi rushed to set his break foot. The Saints front row took an immediate nosedive straight to the turf as the scrum was set, and Matavesi came up limping, leaving the field straight after. Now whether this can be blamed entirely on the way that Pearce refereed the scrum is impossible to say. However demanding that front rows forgo the short bouts of recovery scrums used to offer, likely contributed to this injury and will definitely create more in the future. 

Some may be unconvinced by a single scrum injury. Even the most vehement defenders of the new rules however, will struggle with the issues presented in managing head injuries. The rules around the immediate stopping of the game when a head injury is identified remain in force. Pearce’s focus was on the speeding up of the ruck. His attention was forced by the new rules to focus on the ruck, not allowing him time to assess the wider situation. Charlie Matthews was downed to a spectacular broken nose, a clear HIA (Head Injury Assessment) situation. Pearce, however, was deeply involved in keeping the game moving at the new desired pace. Quins, as a result, were forced to defend a man down when the game should have been stopped. Considering that long stints of defense tore an already unrested Harlequins team apart, this is not insignificant.

There was an even more egregious incident however. Charlie Mathews was at least able to get off the pitch. Finn Smith, after a clear head knock that sent the physio charging onto the field, was forced to continue by the pace of the game. Pearce saw the situation and elected to play on regardless clearly aiming to keep the games pace up. The whole situation took a turn, when at the start of the second half it was revealed that Smith had failed a HIA in the changing room. So, Finn Smith spent twenty minutes playing concussed because the new rules meant Pearce was too invested in keeping the speed of the game high. 

Of course these injuries were not the only issues. A number of smaller decisions were missed on both sides. Scrappy breakdown play led to a number of ‘let God sort it out’ exchanges of knock ons. Regular inconsistency at the breakdown led to confusion among both sets of players and notably saw a softening on not rolling away. The speed of the game meant the TMO had less time to intervene. He contributed more as the game slowed down. Most of his involvements coming in the final fifteen as the aerobic demands became simply too high on players and referee alike.

Essentially the first game under the new rules has presented World Rugby with a dilemma. Which party line will they abandon? Will they commit to this fast speed of play, at the cost of player safety, and the time for officials to make the correct decisions? Or will they move past this obsession with speeding up a game, that is fundamentally methodical in pace? This writer knows which option he would choose…