A Whole New Ball Game Alasdair Reid Examines the New Laws of Rugby and How They Will Change the Game As We Know It

Summary

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ON the basis that he once wrote a treatise denouncing the Pope as a heretic, the 14th century philosopher William of Occam would probably feel more at home at a Uefa tribunal than in the gin- scented committee rooms of the International Rugby Board's Dublin headquarters.

Even so, years of weary experience have taught us that rugby's rulers would almost certainly have benefited more than their round- ball equivalents from Occam's most celebrated principle: "Pluralitas non est ponenda sine neccesitate." Perish the thought that any readers of the Sunday Herald might struggle with the maxim now known as Occam's Razor in its original Latin, but as copies do occasionally fall into the wrong hands, then an English translation may be helpful:

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A Whole New Ball Game Alasdair Reid Examines the New Laws of Rugby and How They Will Change the Game As We Know It

"Entities should not be multiplied unnecessarily." Or, to put it more plainly still: "Keep It Simple, Stupid." That imperative is apparently the guiding idea behind the work of the IRB's Laws Project Group. Just as someone once suggested that the labyrinthine complexity of the Rules of Golf could be reduced to two principles where possible, play the ball as it lies; in...

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