It seems weird that rugby is going through another series of growing pains after all these years, but this is yet one more area in which rugby currently differs from American football, which has had established laws for many years now.
And yet American football had growing pains of its own.
Arising from rugby in the nineteenth century, the laws and shape of the American game were experimented with to make the game simpler.
For one thing, they reduced the original 15-a-side to 11-a-side. Less players on the field to cutter things up.
There were many other changes: the number of downs was increased, and the flying wedge was outlawed (something that happened in modern rugby, too).
The forward pass was made legal in 1906, but remained underused for quite some time.
Some of the changes resulted in the game being purposefully slowed down (does that strike a familiar note?) so these changes were dropped.
But the biggest and best changes were penalties involving territory. And there are quite a few rugby lovers who think that taking a leaf out of the NFL book – installing distance penalties for infractions – would be the way to go.
After all, league took the American game’s four downs or turn it over and made it into six possessions, score or turn it over. And that seems to be working okay.
Instead of awarding a penalty in the opponents’ half, likely to be a shot at goal, award a scrum X metres closer to the opponent’s try line.
For an infraction in the opponents’ 22, award a 5-metre scrum.
This would promote more ball running on the part of both backs and forwards, and would increase the number of attempts at a first-receiver drop goal.
The blockable snap is surely more worthy of three points than the place-kick penalty where everybody has to stand still while Jonny takes forever to set up.
How you fix the scrums and the breakdown are two different issues. But it could be that moving the ball up and down the field for penalties would make the game more attractive for players and spectators.
Join The Roar rugby editor Christy Doran, former Wallaby Matt Toomua and a cast of regular and special guests as they look at the biggest issues in the game on The Roar Rugby Podcast. If you’re looking for great odds on the next game check out Aussie bookmaker PlayUp. Chances are you’re about to lose. Set a deposit limit.
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