Drop-goal shoot-outs to decide World Cup matches

Joel Stransky won the 1995 World Cup for South Africa by dropping the most famous of goals in the closing minutes of a tryless final against New Zealand. The chances of something similar happening in Sydney in November were significantly increased yesterday when the International Rugby Board confirmed that drop-goals would be used to decide stalemate matches, thereby giving the union game its own version of football's penalty shoot-out.

Whether any of the players involved will have the energy to swing a boot at the ball is a moot point, for the drop-goal mechanism will be employed only after two separate bouts of extra time. If a knock-out game is level after 80 minutes – or 90 minutes, given the tendency of referees to prolong virtually every international match– the teams will play a further 10 minutes each way. If that fails to decide the matter, there will be a straight 10 minutes of sudden death. The drop-goals, five per team taken from pre-selected points outside the 22-metre line, will kick in after that.

There have been only two drawn matches in the four World Cup tournaments since 1987: a pool match between France and Scotland in that year's competition, which ended 20-20, and the semi-final between Australia and South Africa in 1999, which the Wallabies won by six points after extra time. Previous tournament rules dictated that try-count and disciplinary records would be used to separate teams in the sudden-death stages, but were never activated.

Slowly but surely, international rugby is beginning to ape the annual Super 12 competition for southern hemisphere provincial teams. This year's World Cup will feature bonus points – one for a side scoring four or more tries, another for a team losing by seven points or less – and many European teams fear referees will be instructed to load their decisions in favour of the attacking side. If that happens, weaker nations like Namibia and Uruguay could find themselves on the wrong end of 100-point hammerings. It will not be pretty.

Scotland, who begin their World Cup preparations with a two-Test trip to South Africa next month, have recalled the Worcester back Ben Hinshelwood to their squad for a training run at Murrayfield on Monday. Hinshelwood has not appeared at the top level since the autumn victory over Fiji, but has now recovered from the leg fracture he suffered during a National League One game against Otley in January.

Simon Danielli, the highly regarded Bath wing, requires a shoulder operation and will not feature next week; nor will the Lions prop Tom Smith and his fellow front-rows, Allan Jacobsen and Craig Smith, all of whom are injured. Matt Stewart of Northampton and Gordon McIlwham, currently playing in France for Bordeaux-Bègles, have been called up in their stead. A 26-man party for the matches in Durban and Johannesburg will be finalised after the end-of-season game with the Barbarians on 28 May.

On the English Premiership front, Andy Hazell has agreed a two-year extension to his contract at Gloucester – an important development for the Kingsholmites, who will lose their influential Frenchmen, Ludovic Mercier and Olivier Azam, at the end of the campaign. Hazell, prone to injury but one of the most effective breakaway specialists in England when fit, is likely to make the secondary England squad for this summer's inaugural Churchill Cup tournament in Canada.

Tom Walkinshaw, the Gloucester chairman, took the opportunity to reject the theory that his successful squad was about to fall apart in the face of severe cash-flow problems. "This team is not breaking up," he insisted. "We have one or two unique situations with particular players, but there is money available for next season that will allow Nigel Melville [the director of rugby] to go right up against the salary cap."

Walkinshaw was less happy about the forthcoming Zurich Premiership final, however – a winner-takes-all match that could cost his team the championship, despite their clear superiority over 22 league matches. "I would be upset if we dominated the league, won it effectively and got nothing for it," he admitted.