2015 National Rugby Championship

2015 National Rugby Championship
Date 22 August – 31 October 2015
Official website
www.rugby.com.au/nrc
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The 2015 National Rugby Championship (known as the Buildcorp National Rugby Championship for sponsorship reasons) will be the second season of Australia's National Rugby Championship, involving nine professional rugby union teams from around Australia.

Teams

Location of teams in the 2014 National Rugby Championship

Legend:
BRI – Brisbane City
MLB – Melbourne Rising
NSW – NSW Country Eagles
PER – Perth Spirit
QC – Queensland Country
UCV – University of Canberra Vikings

SYD – Sydney (see below)
Location of the Sydney-based teams in the 2014 National Rugby Championship

GSR – Greater Sydney Rams
NHR – North Harbour Rays
SYD – Sydney Stars

The nine teams confirmed for the 2015 NRC season include four from New South Wales, two from Queensland, and one each from Australian Capital Territory, Victoria, and Western Australia:[1]

State Team Coach(es) Captain(s) Home Ground Capacity
ACT University of Canberra Vikings
NSW NSW Country Eagles Australia Darren Coleman[2]
Greater Sydney Rams
North Harbour Rays Australia Geoff Townsend
Sydney Stars
QLD Brisbane City
Queensland Country
VIC Melbourne Rising
WA Perth Spirit

Experimental Law Variations

The ARU was given approval by the IRB to conduct experimental law trials as part of the 2014 National Rugby Championship.[3] These law variations were retained for the 2015 season, with exception of the 3 point conversion kick. The value of a successful conversion kick was restored to 2 points, reverting a converted try to the 7 points familiar with rugby fans around the world.[4]

Existing Law of the Game Variation
Law 9.A.1
Value of a Conversion goal - 2 points
Value of a Penalty goal - 3 points
Value of a Dropped goal - 3 points
Value of a Conversion goal - 2 points
Value of a Penalty goal - 2 points
Value of a Dropped goal - 2 points


Previously trialled in South Africa’s Varsity Cup.[3]

Law 5.7(e)
If time expires and the ball is not dead, or an awarded scrum or lineout has not been completed, the referee allows play to continue until the next time that the ball becomes dead. The ball becomes dead when the referee would have awarded a scrum, lineout, an option to the non-infringing team, drop out or after a conversion or successful penalty kick at goal. If a scrum has to be reset, the scrum has not been completed. If time expires and a mark, free kick or penalty kick is then awarded, the referee allows play to continue.		 Non-offending team is allowed to kick the ball into touch after being awarded a penalty kick, which has been blown after time expires, and the lineout will take place.
Law 19.6
The player taking the throw-in must stand at the correct place. The player must not step into the field of play when the ball is thrown. The ball must be thrown straight, so that it travels at least 5 metres along the line of touch before it first touches the ground or touches or is touched by a player.		 Latitude will be given to the throwing team if the opposing team does not compete for the ball near where the ball is received
Law 9.B.1(e)
The kicker must take the kick within one minute and thirty seconds (ninety seconds) from the time a try has been awarded. The player must take the kick within one minute and thirty seconds even if the ball rolls over and has to be placed again.		 Time limit reduced to 60 seconds for conversion kicks, and 45 seconds for penalty kicks.
Law 20.1(d)
No delay. A team must not intentionally delay forming a scrum.		 Team has 30 seconds to form a scrum from the time the referee gives the mark.
Law 20.12(c)
When a team has won the ball in a scrum, the scrum half of the opposing team is offside if that scrum half steps in front of the ball with either foot while the ball is still in the scrum.		 Opposing scrum half is not allowed to enter the gap between the flanker and number 8, even if they stay behind the ball
Law 21.2(a)
The kicker must take the penalty or free kick at the mark or anywhere behind it on a line through the mark.		 Increased latitude will be given to where penalty and free kicks are to be taken
Law 19.2(d)
For a quick throw-in, the player must use the ball that went into touch. A quick throw-in is not permitted if another person has touched the ball apart from the player throwing it in and an opponent who carried it into touch. The same team throws into the lineout.		 Players will be allowed to take quick throw-ins regardless of whether someone else has touched the ball
Law 17.2(d)
Keeping players on their feet. Players in a maul must endeavour to stay on their feet. The ball carrier in a maul may go to ground providing the ball is available immediately and play continues.		 Greater policing of this law, in order to discourage "hold up tackles", by ensuring that the tackler, who holds up a ball carrier in an effort to form a maul, does not collapse the maul as soon as it has formed.
Competition rule - Bonus point awarded for scoring 4 tries Bonus point awarded if winning team scores 3 or more tries than their opponents.

This particular system has been used in France's professional leagues since the 2007–08 northern hemisphere season.[5][6]
Television match official protocols Television match official to only be consulted about tries and in-goal plays.

Regular season

The nine teams compete in a round-robin tournament for the regular season. Each team has four matches at home and four away, and one bye. The top four teams qualify for the title play-offs with semi-finals and finals.

Standings

National Rugby Championship
Pos Team Played Won Drawn Lost Points For Points Against Points Difference Try Bonus Losing Bonus Points
1 Brisbane City 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Greater Sydney Rams 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Melbourne Rising 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
North Harbour Rays 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
NSW Country Eagles 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Perth Spirit 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Queensland Country 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Sydney Stars 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
University of Canberra Vikings 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Updated: 5 March 2015

Source:
 • Teams 1 to 4 at the end of the preliminary competition rounds qualify for the Title play-offs.

Four points for a win, two for a draw, one bonus point for the winning team scoring three or more tries than their opponent (BP1), one bonus point for losing by seven or less (BP2), and no points for a bye.
If teams are level on points in the standings at any stage, tiebreakers are applied in the following order:
 • Difference between points for and against
 • Total number of points for
 • Number of matches won
 • Aggregate number of points scored in matches between tied teams

    Title play-offs

    The top four sides in the regular season advanced to the knock-out stage of semi-finals and final to decide the National Rugby Championship title.

    See also

    References

    1. ↑ Payten, Iain (4 March 2015). "New broadcasting deal ensures future of National Rugby Championship until at least 2020". The Courier Mail. News. Retrieved 4 March 2015.
    2. ↑ The Eagles haven’t landed ... yet: Orange in fight to host NRC game. Central West Daily. 16 April 2015.
    3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 "LAW VARIATION". Australian Rugby Union. Archived from the original on 13 August 2014. Retrieved 2014-08-13.
    4. ↑ Payten, Iain; Pandaram, Jamie (17 April 2015). "Running rugby here to stay". The Daily Telegraph. News. Archived from the original on 17 April 2015. Retrieved 18 April 2015.
    5. ↑ "French try out new bonus point system". Planet-Rugby.com. 27 June 2007. Retrieved 13 August 2007.
    6. ↑ "Article 330, Section 3.2. Points "terrain"" (PDF). Règlements de la Ligue Nationale de Rugby 2008/2009 (in French). LNR. Chapitre 2 : Règlement sportif du Championnat de France Professionnel. Retrieved 27 August 2008.

    External links

    Team webpages