Plans to use the new Experimental Law Variations (ELV) in this year's Tri-Nations rugby tournament have been put on hold after a couple of the northern hemisphere unions expressed strong reservations and scepticism.

Australian Rugby Union chief executive John O'Neill said he was taken aback by the reaction of a couple of the British unions after the IRB made a presentation at a meeting in Hong Kong of the chief executives of the 10 leading rugby nations.

"We were a bit taken aback that following that presentation a couple of the northern hemisphere unions indicated some very strong reservations and a very strong level of scepticism about the new laws," O'Neill said from Hong Kong in a teleconference.

O'Neill said the SANZAR nations would make no decision about using the ELVs in the Tri-Nations until after the Six Nations unions convened their forum on the variations on March 28.

The ELVs, which are designed to help promote more ball in play and attractive free-flowing rugby, are currently being trialled in the Super 14 tournament.

O'Neill said ideally he would like the northern hemisphere nations to trial the ELVs in their domestic competitions from September 1 so they could play under them for a couple of months before the Wallabies' November Tests in Europe.

He said there was still a suspicion that the ELVs had been introduced by Australia to overcome their scrummaging problems, but he stressed the variations belonged to the IRB and that there was now the possibility of even more scrums than under the existing laws.

"There's nowhere to hide, so if you've got a weak scrum and the other team has got a strong scrum, every time there's a short arm (free kick) they are going to pack a scrum," O'Neill said.

"Some of their reservations don't actually stack up against the analysis."

One of the major developments to come out of the Hong Kong meeting was the intention to produce a more detailed plan of a proposed bi-annual inter-hemisphere "world series".

Under the plan, the Tri and Six Nations teams would play eight Tests a year for points, with the two leaders meeting in a one-off final at the end of the year.

O'Neill said it still had to be determined which Tests in a year would count for points if the proposal was adopted and a points system would also need to be approved.

"We are in favour of bonus points and the like as we use in Super rugby and Tri-Nations, there's lots of debates about those things and the northern hemisphere don't like those bonus point arrangements," O'Neill said.

"I think there's a fair few things on the checklist that need to be done to satisfy everyone that it is going to be worthwhile."

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