Rugby union, so vibrant in the northern hemisphere, will occupy a curious halfway house next season. Just over half of the IRB's experimental law variations (ELV) that have been on trial for the past three years were accepted yesterday by the board's council in Dublin and there is concern that the most contentious of them may yet come into force.

On the surface, 13 of the 23 ELV will be introduced globally from August 1 on a trial basis for 12 months. They include collapsing the maul, which is not on trial in the southern hemisphere’s Super 14 tournament at present and which experts in Britain believe could be a greater threat to the community game than at professional level. Ian McGeechan, director of rugby at London Wasps, believes that that law and the end of restricted numbers at the lineout could significantly change rugby.

There will be an evaluation by the IRB next May, but no decision will be taken until the council meeting of November 2009. It is hard to believe that the game will revert to present law before then, and equally hard to believe that the ELV will be changed midway through a season, at the end of which the proximity of the 2011 World Cup will prevent the likelihood of going back to today’s regulations.

But further ELV will be given trials in an elite northern-hemisphere competition (the EDF Energy Cup has been suggested) and they include the area of sanctions, in which a raft of penalty awards are replaced with free kicks. This is the area that worries RFU administrators the most. “There has been a reprieve over sanctions,” Ed Morrison, the union’s elite referee manager, said. “So I’m reasonably pleased, but I wonder if they’ll come back for another go.”

The change to the maul law restores an element of old-fashioned rugby and there is an affection for that phase of play in the northern hemisphere that is not universally shared. England almost scored a try against Australia in Melbourne in 2003 from a maul that travelled more than 40 metres, but there have long been concerns that there was no legal way to stop it. Now there will be, but there is clearly an element of physical risk involved that becomes greater the less proficiently the game is played.

Guinness Premiership coaches will be unhappy that numbers at the lineout will no longer be determined by the side throwing in. They believe that the contest for possession has been restored at that phase in recent seasons and see no reason to change. The other significant elements - more space around the scrum and no reason to pass back into the 22 for a relieving kick - should encourage attacking play, but the use of hands at the ruck and the offside line occurring immediately at the tackle have been referred back for further analysis.

McGeechan has serious misgivings about the changes. “If you don’t want to contest the lineout, you can put two players in, pull down the opposition, and string the other forwards across the field,” he said. “It’s probably the end of the short lineout and of the maul. Two players can go in and pull it down, the others join the defensive line. A good maul attracts players to it and creates space elsewhere. It’s illogical and very shortsighted.”

- David Pickering, chairman of the Welsh Rugby Union, is to take over from Jacques Laurans, the Frenchman, as chairman of the Six Nations board. Gavin Henson, the Ospreys centre, will miss Wales’s tour to South Africa next month after undergoing ankle surgery on Wednesday.

Leicester have signed Santiago González Bonorino, 32, the Argentina prop. Lee Thomas, the Sale Sharks fly half, has had his ban for striking an opponent reduced from 14 to 10 weeks by an RFU appeal panel. He will be able to play from September 5.