**World Rugby’s medical group has proposed banning reset scrums and upright tackling in a potential outline of what the sport may look like when it returns.** According to reports from *The Guardian* and *The Telegraph*, the group has also advised making changes of jerseys and headgear at half-time compulsory, outlawing spitting and banning huddles on the pitch. The report - which, if approved, is expected to affect amateur and elite level rugby to differing degrees - also recommends players washing their hands and face with soap for 20 seconds before a match, at half-time and following the game, while proposing that balls should be changed - and cleaned - frequently during matches. The recommendations will be put to World Rugby’s executive committee, which is expected to convene over the next two days and decide on publishing new temporary law guidelines. If signed off, the application of the recommendations would be likely to differ between community level and the elite game. The elimination of reset scrums represents the most radical of the report’s proposals, with it stating that their removal would lead to a 30 per cent reduction in ‘high-transmission exposure time’. Props and second rows have been identified as the players most at risk of contracting the disease, findings based on World Health Organisation guidelines that define high-risk players as those who spend 15 cumulative minutes within one metre of each other.
