There will be no penalties kicked at next month?s World Rugby Classic after lobbying from the New Zealand side to encourage more tries and more excitement.

The Kiwis, winners in seven of the first eight years of the tournament, have long refused to kick either penalties or conversions during the week-long rugby festival and now other nations have been persuaded to follow suit.

All Black stalwart Andy Haden asked tournament organiser John Kane whether a rule could be brought in to ban kicking for goal after penalties ? which in recent years has made for some increasingly tedious encounters in international rugby ? and was told that if he contacted the other nations and they agreed, then the rule change would be made.

The Kiwi, whose side?s steadfastness in refusing to even kick post-try conversions has arguably cost them victories in recent editions of the Classic, successfully persuaded the other participants to follow suit ? which should mean more tries to warm the November crowds at the popular social/sporting event.

?All the sides will meet with the tournament referee before the first game of the tournament, but it has been agreed that there will be no kicks after penalties,? said Kane, who once wrote to the International Rugby Board with a suggestion of ?differential penalties? to try and break the monotony of kicks being taken by increasingly accurate players with an increasingly aerodynamic ball which makes a penalty almost anywhere in a team?s half a potential loss of three points.

?And we have spoken to the referees about increasing the use of sin-bins and penalty tries to prevent teams just killing the ball near their own line in the knowledge that the opposition can?t kick penalties.

?We don?t want to see too many sin-bins in a festival, though, but obviously they will be used when necessary for foul play.

?It should lead to more tries and probably even more exciting rugby.

?We are keeping conversions in ? although I?m sure some teams won?t be using them ? so there is more value in a try under the posts rather than out on the wing.?

The rule change, along with uncontested scrums which gives line-outs more prominence in matches, are the only differences between Classic rugby and the international game ? with Kane also claiming that there is little difference in intensity.

?Maybe in the early years of the Classic some of the players might have been a little overweight or out of shape, but a lot of these players are either still playing a very high standard of rugby or are only recently retired from the top-class game,? continued Kane, a former president of the Bermuda Rugby Football Union who has been running the Classic for the past 17 years.

?When they pull on their national jerseys, they are not just going out there for a run-out, they are playing to win.

?These guys are top athletes and they can?t just forget that during the Classic. The games are getting increasingly intense and the players take the games very seriously.

?We have the top 11 rugby-playing nations here and there is going to be some great rugby on show.?

Two of the top teams this year are expected to be South Africa and New Zealand, both of whom sent poor teams last time around, although they meet on the opening day.

South Africa remain slim favourites although the French and the USA ? last year?s finalists ? are expected to show well again.

Australia make a return after ten years in the wilderness following a ban for their antics during a Number One Shed party, although whether they will be able to keep pace after so long out of the competition remains to be seen.

The Classic kicks off a week on Sunday with Canada taking on defending champions France and the Kiwis against the Springboks, who will feature many of those in the 1994 World Cup winning side.