Here are some of the rugby stories making the headlines for Sunday May 1
Erasmus plan to rescue rugby
World Cup winning coach Rassie Erasmus has put forward three radical suggestions which he believes can rescue rugby.
The man who led South Africa to their 2019 triumph feels the sport "could be heading towards trouble" unless some fixes are brought in. The changes he advocates centre around refereeing, with Erasmus feeling the men in the middle need extra help.
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But he maintains his ideas would 'simplify things' and make rugby a better spectacle for fans, TV viewers, players and coaches.
One of Erasmus' changes would be to have two referees in a game, arguing 'it is impossible to expect a referee to make between 800 and 850 decisions in one match. The game isn’t permitted to flow any more and you’re always going to end up with one team that is hacked off.'
He told the Mail : "The idea of two referees sounds radical and it has been tried, but it can work if done correctly. If it’s efficient and non-intrusive, it could make a massive difference around the tackle/breakdown area.
"The breakdown is so complicated for players, coaches, referees and fans alike. As a referee, you need five pairs of eyes to see what is going on — otherwise you are guessing.
"It is not unusual to have close to 200 tackle situations in a game. Each time, the referee has to think: did the tackler release the tackled player? Did the tackler get to his feet before the contest? Did the tackled player place the ball immediately? Did the arriving players come through the gate? Did the arriving player support their own bodyweight? It’s impossible!
"You can’t expect one referee to get everything right while also having peripheral vision across the pitch to see who is offside. We should have two referees on the pitch. One who focuses on the breakdown area and another who looks at everything else outside of that. If we can get the scrum and breakdown right then you will see awesome backline play as a result."
To that end, Erasmus also suggests specialist scrum referees, front-rowers with Test pedigree who fully understand the dark arts, to come onto the field to officiate that aspect of the game. He feels too many teams deliberately collapse scrums for tactical reasons and get away with it, while the whole process takes way too much time.
He says the scrum officials could "roam the touchline, as close as possible to the action, and the moment a scrum is called they sprint on to officiate it. It would be their only job, so they would have no impact on the rest of the game." They should have microphones so TV viewers have a full understanding of who is being penalised and why.
Erasmus' third change involves and end to time wasting when it comes to goalkicking.
He says: "You get 60 seconds to kick a penalty and 90 seconds to kick a conversion, so why not police those time limits? We are regularly involved in matches where the kicker goes 20 seconds over the allowance. If there are six kicks at goal in a match, that could waste two minutes of ball-in-play time. Put a countdown clock on the big screens and if the time runs out then they lose the kick."
Rees-Zammit sizzles as Bath labelled a 'disgrace'
Louis Rees-Zammit gave Wayne Pivac another reminder of his try-scoring prowess as Gloucester destroyed Bath 64-0. The Wales flier, who was axed during the Six Nations, scored two of the Cherry and Whites' 10 tries in their biggest English Premiership win.
Rees-Zammit was given a nine out of 10 mark for his sizzling display and could easily have bagged a hat-trick.
His wonder show comes as Pivac ponders his options for Wales' coming tour to South Africa, with the pressure growing for Rees-Zammit to start in the three Tests. Pivac shocked a Welsh nation by dropping his star man for the game against England earlier this year, opting for veteran Alex Cuthbert instead.
BT Sport pundit Ugo Monye laid into Bath for their embarrassing showing, saying: "It was disgraceful what we saw. We have covered a lot of Premiership games over the years and I am struggling to think of the last time I saw such an apathetic, non-committal performance in such a big game.
"To be nilled, and that can happen with the quality of players Gloucester have, but this is a West Country derby and it didn't look like it. "I thought it was disrespectful to the occasion and a lot of questions need to be answered."
Ospreys delight as North returns
Ospreys boss Toby Booth was delighted with George North's return as his side ran in an overwhelming 56-34 victors over Welsh rivals Scarlets
North was brought back just before half-time after a year out of the game and his mix of carrying and footwork made it look like he'd never been away.
It prompted Booth to say: "It's just great to see good players get themselves back performing well and playing consistently. The nature of the person, the time he's been out and we had momentum from last week. Those things play a part.
"The good thing for us is that we have more competition in the backline, which is great."
Lake wins battle of the hookers
Young Ospreys star Dewi Lake put down his own South African tour marker to Wayne Pivac during the Welsh derby rout of the Scarlets.
Lake went head to head with Wales rival Ryan Elias and came out on top, with our WalesOnline man at the game giving him nine out of 10. Elias showed up well enough to merit a seven.
Lake scored two tries to round off a super show and we wrote: "Wales' two hookers in the Six Nations had their moments, but it was Lake who took the plaudits. Lake is just ridiculous with his carries. No stopping him for his two tries.
"Elias was decent enough, making a load of hits and carrying hard, but this was Lake's day for sure."
With Ken Owens' continued absence, Pivac will need to choose between Lake and Elias for the starting hooker's berth against the world champion Springboks.
