Former All Blacks assistant coach Sir Wayne Smith has joined the calls to reduce the number of substitutions from eight to create more fatigue in the game.

Smith, who helped New Zealand win back-to-back World Cups in 2011 and 2015, believes that the number of replacements afforded to teams needs to be reduced and is pleased that World Rugby are taking steps to change the game.

His comments come after outgoing World Rugby chairman Bill Beaumont said that one of his biggest regrets during his tenure was not reducing the number of substitutes.

The debate has been raised several times over the years and World Rugby even investigated whether adding fresh players into a match led to more injuries to fatigued players, but there was not enough evidence to support that claim to push change through.

‘Too many substitutes’

The calls to limit the number of tactical changes or even abolish them in favour of strictly injury replacements has gained traction recently with South Africa winning the last two World Cups thanks in part to their ‘Bomb Squad’ tactics.

Rassie Erasmus and his team have loaded the bench with forwards and often made changes earlier in games to get fresh legs on to influence the match.

“My view is that we allow too many substitutes,” Beaumont said in an interview with The Times.

“I don’t know if I’m looking through rose-coloured spectacles but in years gone by the game always opened up in the last 20 minutes, and games were often won in the last 20 minutes.

“The bomb squad are very effective at what they do, and very successful — they have won two World Cups. I will not criticise that at all, because it suits their game, but maybe the bomb squad could run for a bit longer and a bit further.”

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Former Scotland coach Matt Williams has been one of the most vocal critics of the Springboks’ use of the bench and has urged World Rugby to make changes.

He is of the belief that the Springboks’ tactics “discriminates against backs” and are “abusing” safety laws.

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Ex-Ireland hooker Keith Wood joined the calls to reduce the size of squads as has former referee Nigel Owens.

“I think we need to look at substitutions,” Owens said.

“There’s too many substitutions in the game. Whether you reduce them from eight down to five or four? Or at international level, do you just have them for replacements rather than substitutions? So, the only time you can come on is when a player is injured; you can’t come on for a tactical substitution.

“I think that will help the game. It’ll prevent all these changes and players coming on in the second half. You can have eight players coming on in the second half – more than half a new team – fresh, fit and playing against seven players from the opposition that have been on the pitch for 60 minutes, and they’re just coming on fresh for the last 20 minutes.”

Wayne Smith’s take

Highly respected coach Smith particularly agrees with World Rugby’s law amendments aimed at speeding up the game.

During the Rugby Championship, shot clocks were introduced for scrums and lineouts with teams who were deemed to be intentionally delaying the set-piece penalised.

Those law amendments among others, like better protection for scrum-halves at the back of scrums, rucks and mauls aimed at speeding up the game, will be enforced during the Autumn Nations Series too.

Smith is in favour of these law tweaks and believes that it will have a positive impact on the overall quality of matches and force coaches and players to adapt.

“That will give coaches the challenge to enhance it and make the game even faster,” Smith told the New Zealand Herald.

“What are our athletes going to look like? I think over time they’ll look at fewer substitutions. There’s talk in World Rugby about trying to create more fatigue. They’ve woken up to the fact we need to change.”

He adds that the All Blacks and other New Zealand teams will benefit from these changes as they will be the quickest to respond.

“Whenever there’s been law changes or style of game we’ve reinvented quicker than anyone else so any changes that happen will be an advantage to New Zealand’s pioneering spirit,” he said.

After guiding the Black Ferns to the Women’s Rugby World Cup title in 2022, Smith has moved into the newly created role as the New Zealand Rugby performance coach.

In his new position, he provides mentorship and support to the All Blacks and Black Ferns coaches, Scott Robertson and Allan Bunting.