Does rugby league need a dose of the ELVs?
Columnist By Spiro Zavos, 19 Jul 2008 Spiro Zavos is a Roar Expert
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Earlier this year I attended a conference of sports historians talking about the history and future of rugby union.
The main speech was delivered by an English academic, Dr Tony Collins, an expert and passionate supporter of rugby league, and currently writing a history of rugby union in the 20th century.
Dr Collins’ main theme was that The Split from the Rugby Football Union by the northern leagues in 1895 diverted rugby union from evolving into a handling game (along the lines of rugby league) from the kicking game mentality from which it has emerged in the last 20 years.
There is something in this argument, especially on how rugby union is perceived (still) in the northern hemisphere.
No one, though, can predict with any certainty what sort of a game rugby union might have evolved into if there had been no rugby league.
What we do know is that rugby league has evolved into a man-against-man game, and that rugby union’s unifying principle is the notion of a continual contest for possession of the ball.
In its evolution into a man-against-man game, the lawmakers have taken out most of the messy ‘contests for the ball’ elements of the game. Probably the last such messy contest is the battle for the high ball near the defending team’s tryline.
Up to the 1960s, for instance, rugby league had contested scrums. This contest has gone.
So has the contest at the play-the-ball. Benny Elias was the last of the great practictioners in this area.
Unlimited tackles have gone.
So have gang-strips of the ball.
And sides have to stand back 10m from the ruck instead of the offside line being at the ruck as it was in the era of St George’s dominance in the 1950s and 1960s.
The Sydney Morning Herald ran an article written by Glenn Jackson on Friday 18 July headed: Pointed discussions to kick game along.
According to Jackson, the National Rugby League should be called the New Rules League “because amid a growing perception that rugby league has become more predictable, a host of radical changes have been foreshadowed as the game’s thinkers start to tinker.”
Jackson noted that an increasing number of tries (22 per cent in 2007 compared with 19 per cent in 2006) are being scored from kicks.
This call for a re-think sounds to me a bit like a demand for consideration of what rugby union has called the ‘experimental law variations’ (the ELVs).
Some of the ELVs-type ideas touted by rugby league experts for their game include fewer points allocated for tries scored from bombs.
Peter Sterling (“our game has predictability”) wants more points for tries scored from inside a team’s own half.
Gold Coast managing director Michael Searle says some penalties should be taps, not kicks into touch and a re-start.
Contested scrums will never be re-introduced to rugby league but players should be able to strike at the play-the-ball; stripping, with any number of tacklers, should be allowed; sets should be increased to eight tackles; and the number of replacements should be reduced.
What other adjustments or changes do the readers of The Roar think should be considered by the rugby league authorities?
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August 6th 2008 @ 9:28pm
Steffy said | August 6th 2008 @ 9:28pm | Report comment
Rugby doesn’t need lineouts. They are a complete waste of time. Why union sticks with them is anybodys guess.
July 16th 2010 @ 9:49am
mitzter said | July 16th 2010 @ 9:49am | Report comment
There was a time when lineouts were a joke and it was 50-50 so you would have 100 in a match but now they evolved and really are one of the better restarts – quick, clean and contestable
August 6th 2008 @ 9:33pm
True Tah said | August 6th 2008 @ 9:33pm | Report comment
Union sticks with lineouts because they are a genuine contest for possession…something which league no longer has.
League has become populated by athletic robots running into each other…if thats what you like watching I suggest that you try watching the NFL, where they hit a lot harder than in league.
August 6th 2008 @ 11:47pm
Benjamin said | August 6th 2008 @ 11:47pm | Report comment
Steffy, genuine interest – why do you think that so many league players are now crossing the divide?
August 7th 2008 @ 1:05am
Steffy said | August 7th 2008 @ 1:05am | Report comment
Money
August 7th 2008 @ 4:31am
Benjamin said | August 7th 2008 @ 4:31am | Report comment
Just money, and no other reasons?
September 15th 2008 @ 11:38am
Jack Fruit said | September 15th 2008 @ 11:38am | Report comment
Spiro, what about allowing defenders to protect the fullback when attempting to catch a bomb? It would make it a less attractive attacking option and encourage more creative, less predictable attack.
And yeah, bring back da bears!
September 29th 2008 @ 12:51pm
Issac said | September 29th 2008 @ 12:51pm | Report comment
One ting RL could look at is reducing the number of players on the field. 12 or 11 players will open the game up, even if it was 5m rather than a 10m rule. The 10m rule created a false perception that there would be more space to attack.
October 6th 2008 @ 8:08am
Crosscoder said | October 6th 2008 @ 8:08am | Report comment
After watching some of the exhilarating tries and speed of rl compared to union even under the ELVs,the 13 man code needs only to tweak a couple of rules.One being the kick happening too often on the 6th tackle.
If getting excited over ” proper”yet predictable scrums and lineouts (a time and ball in play time waster), so be it.I always laugh when people talk about quick disposal of ball in union rucks compared to play the balls,when it would appear a search party is needed on occasions to extract the ball from the ruck.A multitude of attacking phases bores the pants off me.
No wonder rl is often referred to as open rugby and is gaining new adherents in Wales,England and Scotland for starters..
I understand why Sthn hemisphere union brought in the ELVs to make the game more appealing,and in the process as many in the Nthn Hemisphere say ,make it more like rl.You know what they say about imitation.
October 6th 2008 @ 8:16am
Benjamin said | October 6th 2008 @ 8:16am | Report comment
Why don’t we ask Mark Gasnier about imitation?
October 6th 2008 @ 8:34am
Crosscoder said | October 6th 2008 @ 8:34am | Report comment
When you are offered $1m per season,Gasnier would play ice hockey.The reason he left St George was the non payment of some of his 3rd party contracts and his self inflicted “fish bowl” existence in Sydney.He then made the “heartfelt” coment it is not about money,please.It is like a politician blurting, it’s not about power or prestige.That is imitation
He is out injured currently with an ankle problem playing on the wing.
Maybe we should ask Craig Gower who commented to a Penrith teammate he made a grand total of 6 tackles in France,but raved about the golf in the Sth of France.