Ayr Rugby Club's twin boost from Down Under

Aug 1 2008

THE two new additions to the Ayr Rugby Club squad from the southern hemisphere should be joining up at Millbrae in the next week or so and one in particular will be on a high.

Stand-off Frazier Climo scored 15 of the New Plymouth Old Boys’ 20 points, two penalties, two conversions and a try, in their 20-18 win over Coastal to clinch the Taranaki club Grand Final in Plymouth.

He comes to Ayr with a reputation as a rising star in New Zealand rugby and looks like being be a considerable asset in the club's quest for honours this season.

The other newcomer is tight head prop Scott Nimmo who was in the inaugural Emirates/Western Force Academy, set up in Perth, Australia in 2005 to give promising young Aussies the opportunity to achieve their potential.

A big, ball carrying front rower, Nimmo started as a No8 and will have the carrying skills needed in what will be a much faster game under the new laws, of which more in a moment. Apart from anything else, Nimmo, not surprisingly with a name like that, is Scottish qualified and will be watched with interest to see if he can progress further in the game here.

Beware, the ELVs are coming! No not some nasty little characters out of Grimms Fairy tales but the Experimental Law Variations which have gone through a period of gestation and are now being introduced in Northern hemisphere rugby at the start of the season.

What are ELVs? Well, we have already been down this road when some of the new laws were trialled in the 'Super Cup' in the latter part of season 2006-2007, a competition which got no one too excited since the leagues were done and dusted and the Super Cup was formed to fill a space in the fixture list.

That didn't stop Melrose coach Craig Chalmers claiming in this month’s Rugby World magazine that Ayr and Currie, who had finished first and second in Premier One, struggled in the Super Cup, implying that their game was not suited to the new laws.

Perhaps it was more of a lack of motivation and interest than a lack of application since the main competition was what really mattered that season when Melrose ended up seventh out of ten in Premier One having lost 40-10 to Ayr at Millbrae and 20-16 at the Greenyards.

However, even at this stage the way the laws are being introduced has caused as much controversy as the laws themselves.

John O'Neill, head honcho of Australian rugby, has claimed that since the northern hemisphere will not be using the 'sanctions' of the elvs ie the awarding of free kicks for many offences where penalties were awarded in the past, it will create two different games in the northern and southern hemispheres while Rob Andrew, elite rugby director of the RFU has suggested that they could turn the game into a 'hybrid of rugby league'.

Rod McQueen, former Wallabies coach and on the IRB committee who have been responsible for putting the new laws together and was at Millbrae 18 months ago during the Super Cup to see the elvs in action reckons 'the big problem area, the breakdown is being sorted out.'

As ever, lots of differing agendas/views on new laws which will have a major impact on the game so how will it all work out?

Ayr coach Kenny Murray, along with all the other coaches in Scottish rugby, has been looking at the impact that for example, allowing the maul to pulled down and having as many or as few players in a line out will have in the forwards and as coaches do, working out how they can use them to their advantage.

In the run up to Ayr's opening warm up against Cartha Queens Park, we will get the new Ayr coach's thoughts on the new laws as well as a look at the way the squad is building to the opening Premier Division One match on August 30 against Melrose at Millbrae.