Former Wallabies captain Andrew Slack’s campaign for rugby union rule changes is meeting receptive ears.
Refusing to join his 10 fellow Wallabies captains in a public stand against Rugby Australia’s governance methods, Slack has instead formed his own posse of rugby intellect that features World Cup-winning coach Rod Macqueen and former Wallabies Dick Marks, Barry Honan and Greg Cornelsen.
Marks oversaw the Wallabies’ resurgence as national coaching director through the 1970s, 80s and 90s and himself called for drastic change at the top of RA last year.
With the cash-strapped code seeking a broadcast deal beyond this season, Slack said it was crucial to provide attractive rugby and “common sense” tweaks would help.
The group have approached acting RA chairman Paul McLean and indications are that at least some of their ideas will be considered for the relaunched domestic season planned for July.
“Rugby’s got to appeal to a broad number and even the rugby devotees, stuck to the game for 50 years, have been frustrated by some of the ways rugby’s been played,” Slack told AAP.
“Laws are one area and to make the game flow more is the basic theme; it’s all about encouraging flow and skill as opposed to stoppage and power.
“There’s been a lot of people make some sense over the past five or so years on this front and they haven’t been listened to.
“This (season pause) is a good time to have people stick an ear out and say ‘that’s worth investigating further’.”
A scrum shot clock has already been discussed while Slack also suggests limiting scrum resets and one-minute quarterly breaks to facilitate substitutions and drinks would help reduce wasted playing time.
He also proposed a limit on the number of substitutes and taking the offside line back to promote backline movement.
“I’ve never understood it. You’re paying more blokes more money for not doing much,” he said of the unused substitutes and drawn-out scrums in the modern game.
“And all we want is a better game that entertains more people, it’s pretty straightforward … common sense.”
Slack was critical of the recent former captains’ letter to RA demanding administrative change because it lacked solutions.
Those rumblings have continued with a renewed push from the group to honour promises made by former board member Peter Wiggs before his resignation.
Describing his own group as “frustrated optimists”, Slack has adopted a more subtle approach.
“You’ve got to have some solutions and I think you’ve got to accept that not all is bad,” he said.
“There is some rugby knowledge there, but we don’t pretend to know it all.
“There’s a lot of good already there that we’re not maximising, so that’s on us to fix.”