Twenty-three player lineups?

From the Independent in Ireland

By Hugh Farrelly

Thursday February 10 2011

THE International Rugby Board (IRB) say they have no plans to increase international match-day squads from 22 to 23 before the World Cup or further down the line, writes Hugh Farrelly.

The practice of having an extra prop on the bench was introduced at club level to counter the increasing amount of uncontested scrums a few years ago. It was effectively to prevent teams using that as a tactical ploy if they were under pressure at the scrum.

It has proved highly successful and is well established in the Magners League and Heineken Cup but, in spite of this, the IRB is adamant that increasing the squads to 23 is not on the agenda at international level.

"There are no plans to introduce 23-man squads to the international game before the World Cup or afterwards," said an IRB spokesperson.

"That was done because of the frequency of uncontested scrums, but the records show that the higher up you go, the less incidents of uncontested scrums there are and it is very rare at international level.

"In addition, there is a cost element to introducing an extra player to match squads. While that may not impact on a country like, for example, England, when you go further down the line to the likes of Fiji and Tonga, the extra cost has to be factored in to the equation."

- Hugh Farrelly