Interchange Coming to Union?

About a year ago, we mentioned that union might want to consider a league-style interchange law for substitutions after a Tri-Nations match featured something of a curious blood substitution.

In the wake of the now-infamous "Bloodgate" scandal involving a faked blood substitution during a Heineken Cup match earlier this year, a similar solution has been proposed. Among 16 suggestions made by an England Rugby Football Union task force on how to improve the sport is the recommendation that open "rolling" substitutions be given a trial run in an English domestic competition.

The idea has some prominent supporters.England manager and former England captain Martin Johnson argued today that the practice may be needed to discourage dishonest substitution practices. Of course, the suggestion has its detractors as well, particularly those who are concerned that opening up substitutions would dramatically affect the size and build of players used, but it looks to be getting taken seriously.

Will this be one way the rugby codes grow more similar than different over time? We'll see. In any case, something need to be done to stop the substitution cheating. As the video of the "Bloodgate" incident shows (follow the link to view the clip), it's certainly hard to catch the cheats under the current system (at least while the match is on). It certainly isn't as obvious as this "reconstruction" we found online, anyway: