Leinster Rugby brothers Ross and Harry Byrne are excited by the prospect of what rugby's new 50:22 law may mean for the game as a spectacle.
As part of the Dublin Simon Community Run@Home campaign, the Byrne brothers are competing to see who's team can run (virtually) from the Aviva Stadium to the Stadio Olimpico in Rome, and back.
Joining Eoin Sheahan on Thursday's OTB AM to provide the latest update on the campaign's progress, talk turned to the new 50:22 law and what it might mean for rugby this season.
Currently being trialed by World Rugby, the 50:22 law means that if a player kicks from inside their half and the ball bounces before going into touch inside the opposition 22, the kicking player's team will be awarded with the throw into the subsequent lineout.
"Yeah, I think it is brilliant," Ross Byrne stated on OTB AM. "Even in training the last few of weeks everyone's been kind of going mad looking for it the whole time."
A new law that will keep defenses on their toes, Byrne believes it will work in favour of more entertaining rugby.
"It will be interesting to see how teams kind of go about it at the start of the season," he commented. "You'd imagine it is going to open up even the front line a little bit more because teams are going to have to respect it.
"I don't know if it is going to be as prominent as people think, because it is probably slightly harder to do.
"But it is definitely something I'm looking forward to and it creates a great opportunity and I suppose it rewards a very impressive skill."
Harry Byrne is equally excited at the prospect of a return for some of the underappreciated aspects of the kicking game.
"It has become a lost art," he told OTB AM. "You used to see people back in the day spiraling balls into the corner and probably not getting the reward that they deserved for that skill.
"I think it is going to open up the attack and make the game a lot more exciting. Defenses are going to have to be so much more concerned about the back field and will hopefully drop a few players out of the front line.
"It adds other options and you might even see more people now playing with ball in hand. You don't know how it's going to go."
Leinster brothers Ross and Harry Byrne joined Eoin Sheahan on Thursday's OTB AM to discuss their work with the Dublin Simon Community. The Dublin Simon Community has launched its Run@Home with Ross and Harry Byrne campaign, which is sponsored by Deutsche Bank, in response to the continued cancellation and postponement of outdoor running fundraisers in Ireland.
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