Rugby league must stop slowing the pace of the game

I actually applauded the crackdown as I can’t stand the wrestle and teams stifling attack by being offside but one thing I will criticise the refs for while the crackdown was on and aswell now is blowing a penalty when the attacking team has got a roll on and are really on the front foot. They blow a penalty for offside or flopping and the attacking team loses the momentum of the play as it is. They should play advantage to the tackle is then completed and let the team take the momentum that already exists. They occasionally do it in the red zone (let the play continue and blow it up if the team don’t score), but in other parts of the field they blow straight away and the momentum stops. For example, team makes a half break and is pulled down on half way, defender holds on longer than he should, plays the ball, and the attacking team take the momentum of the previous play with the defence shot to threads and make another break and go deep into the red zone. Play on advantage taken, but they always blow the penalty stopping the momentum, and giving the defence time to regroup. If the team loses momentum and only make a few metres from the infringement, THEN blow the penalty. The usual suspects are the masters of this and for me that is the main reason I was and still are in favour of the crackdown earlier in the year.

It would if it was actually applied properly, and not by a gutless admin that won't back the officials. Less penalties does not inherently mean a quicker game. It's just as likely to result in slower games because teams know they can get away with much more wrestling and slowing down the PTB. The 90s wasn't quicker because there were less penalties, the 90s was quicker because it was a cleaner and faster game than the years before it, dominated by open-ended play.

Except that doesn't work, as players will always test the rules in order to wrest an advantage. So the referee talking to the players, and trying to only blow the whistle on the most egregious breaches produces a faster game. As opposed to tweeting at every tiny little indiscretion, and the ensuing thumb-twiddling pow-wow waiting for something to happen (which is too often a penalty goal) And that's not even addressing the aimless and seemingly endless waits for scrums, drop outs and kick offs. I grew up watching in the 70s and 80s when there were 25 penalties a game, no one ever learned. It was only in the 90s when it was decided to lay off the penalties, numbers halved, and things got a lot quicker.

No we do not do we actually want a faster game which could be achieved by both sides playing by the rules.

Graham - I agree also. Gus Gould and Rothfield may well have blown up but what responsibility do the players and coaches have to play within the rules. They should have stuck at it for longer and we could have had a better flowing game.

The game is a bit all over the shop at the moment and there are a lot of frustrated fans out there voting with their feet and leaving the game. Look at the crowd figure not tv ratings. TV ratings are still really high... why? It’s easy to be the most popular thing watched on TV there isn’t much competing with it! The game is slower than it has ever been because of the stoppages we have, mostly involving the bunker. Penalties don’t slow the game down much at all because the receiving team of the penalty want to get on with it as fast as possible to put the opposition team on the back foot. The amount of penalties however do have an impact on the speed of the game hence the reason state of origin football seems a lot faster pace than regular club games (look at the average penalties in state of origin vs regular club games) Almost every single try is sent for review by the bunker and it takes time to get the decision (some take longer than others). Meanwhile the play stops and we wait for the decision and then of it turns out to be a try we have a conversion attempt and then return back up to halfway and it’s total time out of play is in excess of 5 minutes each time. Simple solution is do away with the review but I think it is a bit silly to suggest that because the game has spent a fortune bringing that technology in to play and It does have massive advantages when used right in helping to get decisions correct. What I would like to see and I think it will help a hell of a lot in speeding up the game/flow of the game is to get back to one referee. Play under one set of interpretation. Players can get a feel for how the referee is making calls or his 10 metre or how long they can lay in a tackle before they are penalised whatever and they can adapt meaning we have fewer penalties. Leave touch judges as they are but get them to actually make calls and not instruct the referee to just check with the bunker. Do your job touchie! Bring in two in goal judges (one at either end) to help assist referees and touch judges make calls and let the referees call stand! Implement a captains challenge system of one challenge per half. Can keep your challenge if your challenge is upheld otherwise you lose it. Challenges can be used in general play as well as try scoring situations so we don’t have those frustrations of referees being overruled by the bunker in some instances and otherwise not. Also speeds up the game in that when a captain comes up to a referee trying to argue with his decision the referee can just simply say would you like to use a challenge and if the answers no then it’s just play on. Discussion ends. These things if implemented will dramatically help an increase in the speed and flow of the game. It will also go a massive way in helping our referees improve as they will be forced to make decisions. Practice makes perfect. It will also empower the referees and take some pressure off them putting the onus back on the players namely the captain to come up with the decision to review. Can’t reallt blame the referee for going to the bunker to check, referee gets crucified if he doesn’t and it turned out to be a try or no try and he made the wrong call.

I think we have just been a party to the resurrection of CONTROVERSY CORNER. All we need now are the pictures. We have all the opposing opinions. Terrific contribution.

Rd 17 game Storm v Dragons.Fast open, few stoppages, flowing.that's the way it should be played and allowed to play. It boils down to the responsibility of they players and onfield officials, working with ,not against each other.

I agree about the flops and I agree overall about the penalties but the refs definitely need a better feel for the game. In the Bulldogs v Tigers game the Bulldogs turned the ball over putting the Tigers on attack straight away. The Dogs conceded a penalty on the first tackle after the turnover. It was a massive get out of jail card for the dogs...and as it was still the zero tackle there was no advantage to the Tigers to get a penalty. While it sticks in the craw to agree with Gus he commented on it at the time. That's the sort of stuff where a feel for the game is important.

Time wasting is now one of the most annoying things in the game. A player gets a cramp or getting blood wiped off his head/bandaged so they have to stop the flow of the game until he's ready? Players "walk" to scrums,restarts,sin bin etc.The other week in the tigers v dragons game Lawrence was behind the dead ball line getting treatment & play was stopped instead taking the drop out why? The other thing that drives me mad is when a player attempts to take a quick tap the ref says wait until i mark the spot, but when they are kicking for touch from a penalty they "walk" beyond the mark by as much as 2 metres.Where's the leadership from Greenburg & his cronies.

I disagree about that. The bunker is a bit of a mood killer but the clock is stopped so it doesn't really interrupt the flow of the game too much for mine. The scrums are shockers where everyone is there and ready to pack but they stand around for 20 seconds waiting for the shot clock to wind down. It's rubbish.

I think the bunker and clock stoppages is more a discussion for officiating the game. I have got used to the video ref decisions...I also watch NFL so well used to stoppages. In terms of the pace of the game the most frustrating part for me is watching one team struggling to get down the field because defenders are coming up too early and tacklers are niggling, flopping around the ruck at each tackle. Then the opposition gets it and away they go ...quick play the balls and options both sides. I have seen this happen to the Knights and its really unfair. You need to be at the game to see all this happening. Good on the NRL for having a crack at trying to get this out of the game earlier this season. Defending sides will always want to slow things down....its not fair when only one side gets away with this.

Agree. I would rather no video ref at all.

The biggest factor in killing th flow of the game are the refs referring to the bunker in the majority of try’s. If there were to be a captain/coach challenge where only 1 incorrect challenge is allowed per half then it would improve the flow and allow us all to get on with the game. But the NRL will never lose the bunker because the advertising dollars generated from it are likely very large.

No, we all want a good, clean, fast game. Which is more easily achieved when the 10 metres are adhered to and the wrestling is cut down on. That's what the entire basis of the crackdown was.

If the refs keep the 10 meters & make the players get off the tackled player quicker, the game becomes quicker. I have a question, if you say the fans do not or did not like the crackdown then tell me that every game you go to the fans are still yelling "get them on side ref", " get them off (the tackled player)"& many more unprintable words?????

It's a lost cause, as evidenced in this thread, fans apparently want slower games, more stoppages and less contact.

I think it is funny that you referenced both the NFL and MLB as games that we should model our review system on. Both these games are very heavily officiated. In MLB, as I know more about it than NFL, they have a minimum of four guys calling the game and when it gets to the playoffs they have 6 officials on the ground calling the game. Reviews take forever because the umpire needs to link up with the head office in New York to make the call. Further, there is quite significant calls to take balls and strikes off of the plate umpire because of the inconsistency between each umpires strike zones as well as the inconsistency of each individual umpire over 9 innings each game. Further, a lot of calls are still subject to interpretation even when reviewed. Most specifically is runners leaving the base path either to avoid a tag or to initiate contact with an opposition player trying to make a play ie you can never have a perfect system of review and if anybody thinks it's possible then well look at all the other issues every single sport with a review system has.

I would also like to join this chain of agreement. I would like to see the offside line policed still. I don't care for the "feel" of the game if a team is offiside, blow the whistle. The two things they really focussed on this year were ideal, the offside line and playing the ball properly.

Barry, I would rather the shot clock was reduced to 15 seconds for scrums and drop outs. Watching a lot of the old games, I timed how long from when the scrum was signalled by the ref and when the halfback fed the ball (in the middle of the tunnel mind you) - and the vast majority were done within 15 seconds. The one thing Rugby League needs to get back is for the game to 'flow'. The speed of play is different to the continuity of play. We need to get off the stop/start, check everything road we have started down.