A football-style penalty kick shootout may decide the winner of rugby's Super 15 competition.
The kicking competition will be used as a last resort if two periods of extra-time, including a sudden death 10-minute spell where the first team to score wins the match, fail to separate the sides contesting playoff matches, including the final.
In the unlikely event of the penalty shootout being required, Sanzar's rules see each team picking five players still on the field at the end of extra-time to take a penalty kick from one of three marks on the 22m line.
The first attempt would be directly in front of the posts, the second and third in 15m from the touchline on the left-hand side of the posts and then from the same position on the right-hand side of the posts, before kickers four and five would try from in front of the posts and then 15m from the touchline on the left-hand side of the posts.
If teams cannot be separated after the five kicks, the sequence is repeated on a sudden death basis until a winner is found.
Before the shootout, teams that are level after normal time will play two 10-minute periods of extra-time, with a two-minute halftime break. Coaches will not be allowed onto the field during the halftime or the five-minute interval after fulltime has expired and extra-time starts.
If teams remain locked a 10-minute sudden death, golden point spell will take place before the kicking showdown.
The chances of scores in the five finals matches being level at fulltime are slim if the results from 120 Super 15 matches played this season are anything to go by. Of those, only five, including the match between the Crusaders and the Hurricanes that was not played in the immediate aftermath of February's Christchurch earthquake, were drawn.
