be able to sign up a foreign footballer, though they would have to fit within the contract restrictions. Rules The ARU announced in June 2007 that the inaugural championship would adopt the Experimental Law Variations (ELVs), which were initially trialled at South Africa's Stellenbosch University and which aim to bring more free-flowing play into the game. The laws were implemented in both the Sydney and Brisbane club competitions and were well received. Referees The referees supplied for the tournament predominantly come from the Australian Rugby Union Panels. Referees for the tournament included: Matt Goddard, James Leckie, James Scholtens, George Ayoub, Daniel Cheever, Brett Bowden, Andrew Lindsay and Geoff Acton. Stuart Dickinson and Paul Marks did not referee in the tournament, as they refereed at the 2007 Rugby World Cup in France. Media coverage The Championship was broadcast on free-to-air television during its only season. The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) secured the rights to exclusively televise the competition from 2007 through to 2009 by agreeing to accept a substantial fee from the ARU in order to cover the matches. The fact that the sport's governing organisation had to pay a television station to broadcast the Championship arguably left worrying implications for a code that was struggling to attract mainstream interest in Australia. The ABC committed to broadcast 19 matches during the season on ABC1 and ABC2: two matches from each round, the semi-finals and the final. The previous time the ABC had covered elite-level rugby was for the 1991 Rugby World Cup (which Australia won). Regular season 2007 The eight teams played four home games and four away games each during the preliminary competition rounds, consisting of a single round-robin with each team playing each other once plus an additional return match for the "derby" fixture played in the first round (these fixtures were matches between the closest neighbouring teams in most cases). The top four teams at the end of the preliminary competition rounds qualified for the title play-offs with semi-finals and finals. Standings Competition rounds Round 1 Round 2 Round 3 Round 4 Round 5 Round 6 Round 7 Round 8 Title play-offs 2007 The top four sides in the regular season advanced to the knock-out stage of semi-finals and final to decide the Australian Rugby Championship title. Semi-finals Grand Final Players 2007 Leading try scorers Source: rugby.com.au Leading point scorers Source: rugby.com.au Squad lists Team squad lists for