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At this midpoint of the NRL season, it is time for some suggested ways of maintaining rugby league as the real winner in any game.
Here are 18 improvements.
1) Get rid of the stripping rule. Penalties to be awarded only if the referee has called ‘held’.
The rule’s implementation has been messy, a lottery, and has reached true absurdity when an attacking player has been losing possession near an opponent’s line, only for a defender to give the ball back, fearing a penalty.
This has happened many times. Scrap the law and get a more free-flowing game.
2) See above.
3) See above.
4) See above.
5) See above.
6) See above.
7) Tackled players must get to their feet to play the ball or be penalised. In other words, the existing law must be enforced. It’s not that hard; players were getting to their feet for a century.
This non-innovation would clean up perhaps the game’s chief irritation, the play-the-ball mess, with the lost possessions, gamesmanship and penalties.
It might temper teams’ reliance on quick play-the-balls and advantage defenders, but against that, coaches would have to think more creatively, instead of just mimicking each other.
8) See above.
9) See above.
10) See above.
11) See above.
12) See above.
13) Why should an attacking team be penalised for knocking on when attempting to score a try in their opponents’ in-goal? Why should the defending team be rewarded through a seven-tackle set on their quarter.
The rule was brought in to stop teams kicking the ball dead and gaining a line dropout, but its effect has been to penalise attacking teams for their good work.
A 10m scrum with the feed to the defending team is a much fairer result.
14) See above.
15) See above.
16) See above.
17) See above.
18) See above.
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