Sevens Rugby Law Variation To Be Trialled At Asia Rugby Emirates U20 7s Championship 2025 in India

rugbyasia247 Posted On May 1, 2025

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Mohamed Al Zaabi, Secretary General of the UAE Rugby Federation

The Asia Rugby Emirates U20 7s Championship in India will trial a new rugby sevens law variation to award 7 points in rugby sevens for a try scored directly between the posts, with no conversion kick. Is this really needed?

With the biggest challenges to rugby going global being financial risk, the constant changing of laws being played across all leagues and formats of the game globally impedes the growth, as the variety of rugby rules becomes nearly impossible to explain to new audiences.

What Is the Sevens Rugby Law Variation Trial – Asia Rugby Emirates U20 7s Championship 2025 in India

The UAE Rugby Federation (UAERF) announced on 1st May 2025 that it had received official approval from World Rugby to implement a new variation to Law 8.8 in 7s rugby – awarding 7 points for a try scored directly between the posts, with no conversion kick.

What Is the Sevens Law Trial - Asia Rugby Emirates U20 7s Championship 2025 in India

Image Credit – UAERF

They said the law had been trialled by UAERF in October 2023 to “speed up the game and increase intensity by removing the conversion, pushing teams to react faster and improve defensive strategies” during the 2023–2024 UAERF Women’s League.

They said the results “showed clear benefits to the game’s flow and competitiveness”. Now, one aspect in which the women’s game lags behind the men’s game is the kicking efficiency for conversions, it’s an actuality. So did players aim to score under the posts more than in the past – it’s not clear.

The only data they published when announcing the news only confirmed that kickers take up to 30 seconds to convert, which is their right within the law. Nothing was shown that more tries were scored under the posts or that in-field game time was increased.

(See below – the UAERF said this forms part of a full analysis report, but we would love to see how it’s proven to improve the game.)

What Is the Sevens Law Trial - A2025 Rugby Sevens - UAERF

Rob Kearney, Chair of the World Rugby Sevens High Performance Committee, approved the law trial, adding that it will debut at the Asia Rugby Emirates U20 7s Championship in India – no dates or details have been released by Asia Rugby for the tournament as of yet.

It is unclear why a UAERF trial is being implemented at a regional competition run by Asia Rugby, but for those who have not even been following the news for some time, the two organisations share the same offices in Dubai (and still the same bank accounts).

Mohamed Al Zaabi, Secretary General of the UAE Rugby Federation, said, “This approval stands as a monumental stride for our efforts to advance the 7s game, made possible by our collaboration with World Rugby and Asia Rugby. Our proposed amendments fruited from a collective vision to engage the rugby community with a more competitive, yet integral approach to the game. We eagerly anticipate expanding these initiatives at a regional level.”

We just struggle to see how it will fulfil their promise “to bring faster play, more excitement, and a fresh challenge to teams on the world stage”. What do you think?

Can We Please Stop Tinkering With The Laws

As our editor wrote in this piece on the JRLO, there needs to be a better global outlook on how many different tournaments use different rule variations.

This past week, World Rugby held its annual World Rugby Player Welfare and Laws Symposium 2025 from April 29-30, which we hope to bring you more from, and usually, the symposium leads to other changes in the game we are yet to see.

Changes to improve the game are, of course, welcomed, but is there a sport on the planet that tinkers so much with its game as rugby union? On the same weekend, new fans are exposed to different law sets being used in the MLR, Premiership, Super Rugby, JRLO, Sevens, etc.

The RPL 7s, which launches in India in June, is embracing the franchise team format, but has also changed the usual rules of Rugby Sevens to have four quarters of four minutes instead of two halves of seven minutes. We have yet to see any legitimate reason why that’s needed aside from fitting their commercial model of broadcasting the matches, and our repeated attempts to interview Rahul Bose – Rugby India’s President, have thus far not materialised.