England asking IRB to change laws to cut injuries

TWICKENHAM, England (AP) -England is pressing the International Rugby Board to change the laws of the game to help cut down on the injuries that decimated the country's squad for this month's internationals.

England was arguably the team worst hit by injuries for the southern hemisphere nations' tours of Europe and director of rugby Rob Andrew said Thursday that is probably because of the breakdown law that favors defending sides.

The IRB is already under pressure to review the law because it has led to a less attractive game for fans, with teams kicking away possession from inside their own 22 rather than risk conceding a kickable penalty.

England's coaching staff plans to be without about 20 percent of its elite squad at any one time because of the risk of injury in what is a tough contact sport.

But Andrew said team manager Martin Johnson had to contend with an injury rate twice that this month, with 10 of the 15 players that started England's last Six Nations match in March out of action.

"We don't have any figures yet for whether the breakdown law is contributing to the injuries but clearly there is an anecdotal view when you talk around players and coaches in the Premiership (that) the difficulty in moving the player away from the area of the breakdown is contributing to greater risk of injury,'' Andrew said.

The IRB ruled this year that if a tackler or the first player arriving at a breakdown had their hands on the ball they can keep their hands on it in the ruck. That has shifted the initiative away from the supporting attacking players, who are now regularly penalized by the referee when their feet leave the ground as they try to shift opponents out of the way.

"We need to have the skills to compete to turn the ball over and I think we're getting better at that, but you also have to be able to counter it and smash these guys off the ball,'' Johnson said.

This added physicality appears to be leading to the increase in injuries and has definitely led to more kicks upfield rather than an attempt to run the ball from deep.

Johnson refused to use the law changes as an excuse for England's losses to Australia and New Zealand, although both sides were more adept at playing to the new rules.

"It's for other people to make the laws,'' Johnson said. "We just have to deal with what is.

"Our ability to clear those guys out effectively, aggressively, dynamically has got to improve without doubt, whatever happens with the law changes.''

Andrew, though, cited the rash of injuries as the leading reason for England's apparent lack of progress since it finished second to Ireland in the Six Nations.

"Martin hasn't made an issue of this and neither is he going to, but we had effectively had a new team,'' Andrew said.

England improved hugely from last November's internationals, when it conceded 102 points over three games to Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, to become leading Six Nations try scorer when the same players touched down 16 times in five games.

Although World Cup holder South Africa did not visit Twickenham this year and was replaced by the weaker Argentina, England only conceded two tries in its three November internationals.

"We have closed the gap on the southern hemisphere teams,'' Andrew said. "There was a big gap to close this time last year and we have closed it. We have now got to work out how we go past them.''

Johnson reiterated his belief that coaches Brian Smith, Mike Ford and John Wells are capable of lifting England to such a level, despite criticism from fans and commentators.

Several former England players joined in the criticism, although World Cup-winning fullback Josh Lewsey apologized to the trio for his comments.

"Buy yourself some time and blame someone else,'' Johnson said. "That would be easy to do but it wouldn't be right.''