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Four rule changes for rugby league

Roar Guru
17th September, 2018
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Roar Guru
17th September, 2018
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At its best, as seen in the current finals series and State of Origin, rugby league is a great sport. However, a few things could make it better.

Five-point tries
When you play the ball inside your own half and score a try, you should get five points to reward long-range tries.

The Penrith try against Cronulla where Viliame Kikau broke a couple of tackles and ran over Valentine Holmes before laying off for a brilliant try would be worthy of five points.

They are harder to come by than a barge-over from a few yards and far more spectacular.

However, this rule would not apply to an intercept or loose-ball gather from 51-100 metres.

Field goal
Why does rugby league have field goals? The aim of the sport is to get the ball over a line.

Football doesn’t give you another option if you aren’t good enough to score a goal, while AFL allows points for missing, which is embarrassing.

Get rid of the field goal.

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If a match goes 80 minutes and is drawn, and then an extra ten minutes and is still a draw, the field goal then becomes an option so we aren’t playing until 3am.

Seven-tackle rule
A grubber kick going over the dead-ball line resulting in the opposition receiving seven tackles is flawed.

This isn’t rocket science. If someone kicks the ball from outside the 40m line and it goes dead, then give the opposition seven tackles to stop it from becoming a tactic.

Not a penalty
When the Dragons player passed the ball into a Souths player lying in the ruck in Saturday’s match, it should simply have been play on. It wasn’t a penalty either way. Just play on.

It’s been a quality finals series which has resulted in two modern-day rivals, Melbourne and Cronulla, fighting it out next weekend, while two 110-year rivals will also go at each other, in Souths and Easts, next Saturday.

It should make for compelling viewing.

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