It's time for bonus points in rugby league

Round 11 was the first of the split rounds, featuring just four games. The first couple were two of the worst games of rugby league that it has ever been my misfortune to suffer through.

While the Friday night game between the Rabbitohs and the Eels may have featured six tries – and was decided by two points – the 14-12 scoreline is a better indication of the boring, defence-centric display put on by the two sides.

Both sides looked like they were going out there not to lose, rather than trying to win.

However, their efforts were made to look thoroughly riveting by the following night’s match between the Wests Tigers and the Cowboys at Campbelltown. The score was 2-0 in the 76th minute. The sole try was to Antonio Winterstein with three minutes to go. It was such bad football that it surely made many people flick over to the equestrian highlights in preference.

The powers that be at NRL HQ must have been willing the upcoming Origin to arrive and help the fans forget what execrable footy had taken place on the weekend.

However, the next day we were treated to a classic encounter between the Bulldogs and the Raiders that washed away the memory of those dreadful games, with 13 tries and excitement right until the last play. The only real shame was that there had to be a loser.

The bigger shame is that those types of game are the exception, rather than the rule.

Writing in the Fairfax press, Phil Gould lamented why that is the case:

“…while ever we continue to keep score and people’s careers and livelihoods are subject to results… then the best way to win games is through structure, control and resilience in defence.”

No coach ever got sacked for winning ugly. At the end of the day expansive and entertaining play often leads to errors and errors often lead to defeat.

When in doubt sides will play a dour game based on five one-out runs, followed by as deep a kick as possible, and then hope to force an opposition error. If they are lucky they’ll also have an x-factor player who can jag a few tries, and they’ll get away with the win.

The Melbourne Storm have been successfully plying this model for a decade now.

Then you’ve got the sides who realise that the referees are too scared to sin bin players so they continually slow the play down whenever they are in their defensive 20, knowing that it just buys them time to reform their defensive line. And it works so why wouldn’t they do it?

However, it doesn’t mean it is great to watch. And I want great to watch. I don’t want matches where fewer than 20 points are scored all up. However, many teams know how to successfully strangle the life out of games when it is necessary for victory. And it’s getting more frequent.

In season 2014 there were just five games where the combined scores added up to less than 20 points. Notably, of the 10 sides who took part in those games, eight of them finished in the top eight.

Alarmingly, although we are only halfway through season 2015, we have already had eight games that have failed to see 20 points scored in them, and 10 of the sides taking part were top eight sides.

Bringing it back to the present, and on Monday night we saw a remarkable comeback by the North Queensland Cowboys in which they overhauled a 30-6 deficit in a 15-minute scoring frenzy that was amazing to watch.

While the fragility of Parramatta’s right-side defence and the sheer brilliance of Johnathan Thurston were the major talking points, it felt strange to me that the Eels could have played such a great attacking game for 52 minutes but come away with nothing at all, just as the Raiders had a few weeks earlier.

We need to put incentives in place to make scoring tries and playing enterprisingly more attractive to coaches.

The best way to do this would be to bring in bonus points for scoring four or more tries in a match.

Unlike the Super Rugby competition, I do not want to see a bonus point awarded for sides that lose by a converted try or less.

Bonus points for scoring tries would encourage sides who were trailing by big margins to still chance their arms in attack right to the end. It would encourage coaches to create ambitious attacking strategies. It would allow sides out of touch with the eight to mount wet-sail runs for the finals.

In short, it would be the biggest boon for attacking football since the 10-metre rule was introduced in 1990.

Further, it will reward sides who feature good attacking play with better ladder position.

Let’s look at how it would affect this season.

As you can see, the Cowboys would pip the Broncos for top spot. Further, the Raiders and Warriors also jump up a spot. However, the big winners are the Knights who jump two ladder positions. While they have been on quite the losing streak recently, it should be noted that in four of their last six losses they have scored at least four tries.

While the ladder positions of the Dragons and Storm stays the same, their lack of bonus points see them lose touch with the top two sides.

Now let’s have a look at how bonus points would have effected last year.

As you can see there are two very big losers – both of last year’s grand finalists.

While the Rabbitohs would have dropped three ladder spots to finish in sixth spot, the Bulldogs drop four to completely miss the finals.

The other notable change is that the Storm rise three spots into the top four and the second chance.

Of course this is all pure speculation. For starters you can be sure that the tactics of the teams in both seasons would have been different if bonus points were available. However, in 2014 of the 384 opportunities there were for a side to score four or more tries, on 187 occasions they did. That’s 48.7 per cent.

This season that’s dropped to a ratio of 86 times from 198 opportunities, or 43 per cent.

The trend for lower scoring and more boring games may be upon us.

Introducing bonus points may be able to turn the tide. Of course it would be greatly aided if a five-minute sin bin was brought back to deal with the professional fouls that have proliferated in recent years. Referees wouldn’t be too scared to send blokes off for a brief sit down and it would surely lead to more tries – and through that more entertainment.

Surely that’s what we all want, right?