Sydney clubs ready to trial Twenty20 rugby

Rugby's version of cricket's Twenty20 - in which players leave the field during a game to create space and attacking opportunities - will be trialled soon at Sydney club level.

Former Australian and NSW Rugby Union chairman Dilip Kumar is pushing the proposal and is organising two high-profile Sydney premiership clubs to play a trial of what has been termed Rugby's 20-13 in August, during the bye weekend in the Shute Shield competition. In the game, two players from each team would be excluded for a 20-minute period in each half.

Former Wallabies coach Eddie Jones originally threw up the idea, as a 20-12 game, in a Brisbane newspaper column a few weeks ago where he explained that rugby spectators were desperate for a "quick fix similar to Twenty20 in cricket".

"If you remember any game when two players have been sent to the sin bin from one team, the amount of space available to the non-offending team is immense," Jones wrote.

"With one more body off, players would have more time and space to operate in attack, but in a structure that resembles a game of XVs. I'd still operate scrums and lineouts.

"Think of it 40 minutes of non-stop, fluid attack, two games at the one ground. Spectators would flock."

Kumar thought the idea had great merit and immediately contacted other officials to see if there was any interest in it. He received a strong response, with many complaining how the code had become defence-orientated and that attacking football had been stifled through lack of space. He then contacted club officials to organise a game, from which all proceeds will go to a charity.

It will still need some tinkering. Interest was higher in the 20-13 idea, with two rather than three players leaving the field for 20-minute stretches each half.

"I think it is a brilliant idea, and well worth a trial to see if it actually works," Kumar said yesterday.

"What we are thinking of doing during the trial match is even having power-plays, where the captain of each team decides on the field when exactly they play the 20 minutes per half with two less players.

"People are looking at change, and keep harking back to the last World Cup final in 2007 where no tries were scored. Why not attempt to make the game more entertaining by enticing teams to attack and score tries."

- © Fairfax NZ News