For the match officials it won’t be exactly business of usual due to a few tweaks in the breakdown laws, but at least they will have had the benefit of watching their counterparts in New Zealand and England putting the new interpretations into practice.
In charge of the opening Guinness PRO14 clash between the Scarlets and Cardiff Blues on Saturday will be Nigel Owens, for who it will be game no 185 in the tournament. A day later, one of the up and coming referees in Wales, Adam Jones, will make his debut when the Ospreys host the Dragons.
Two Welsh referees at either end of the experience scale, but the man who has taken charge of countless cup finals and Test matches, Owens, is backing Jones to make a success of his first big outing.
“Adam has a lot of potential and he has a nice manner about him on the field. He’ll have a lot of big personalities to deal with on Sunday, but he won’t let the players bully him
“I like the way be goes about his business – he’s quiet and respectful. Sunday will be a difficult game to referee, given it is a big Welsh derby, but I know the game will be about the players and not him.
“I really do think he is one for the future and I’ve got a lot of confidence in him. We’ve talked about this weekend’s matches and the only advice I’ve given him is not to change anything he has been doing and not to go into the game thinking he can’t make a mistake.
“It’s impossible not to make a mistake, we all do, and I know I’m going to make a few at Parc y Scarlets. The key thing is to get right the things that really matter
“I have learned from the past that if you go into a game a bit blase or ill prepared you can get caught short. I’ve really enjoyed getting back into training and I’m well prepared for the first game back.”
Owens may be the world’s most experienced rugby official, but even he admits there will be a few nerves this weekend. He’ll arrive wearing a mask, inspect the players boots wearing a mask and talk to the front row forwards wearing a mask.
There won’t be a chance to meet up with the TMO pre-match and, of course, there won’t be any fans in the stadium. But some things won’t change.
“Some things will be slight different in the build up to the game, but there will be nothing different for the 80 minutes on the field,” he said.
“When COVID hit us earlier in the year I did wonder whether or not I’d blown my whistle for the last time. Now I’m eager to get back into it and can’t wait for this weekend – I’m as excited as I ever have been.
“I haven’t been devouring all the games from New Zealand and England on TV, but we have been going through specific aspects of matches to see how the new laws have been interpreted. In that sense it has been good for us to learn from how the breakdown has been refereed so far.
“Nothing much will change for me and I will still be refereeing in the same way. Last season if someone came off their feet and didn’t make an immediate effort to roll away you might have played on for a few seconds.
“But now it is all about getting players to move straight away to avoid the big hits and clear outs. They are subtle, but important, changes.
“There may be a few more penalties to begin with, but things will settle down. I know I’m going to be a bit rusty, as will the players, but I wouldn’t read too much into the two rounds of matches that are coming up.
“It will take a while for players and referees to settle into a new rhythm. People can get hung up on penalty counts, but what everyone wants is a quality game of rugby.
“It is important to get people back into the stadiums to watch live rugby, but they will only return if they are going to enjoy what they are seeing. For coaches and players there is a difficult balance to get right between winning and entertaining.
“For a referee it is all about having the empathy with the players to know what not to blow for to make the game better to play in and to watch. Fans will come to watch winning teams, but they also want their rugby to be easy on the eye.”
