Penney eager to see Super laws in action

The mark is there to reduce kicking. Not a good idea to remove it imo. Though I do think the marker should be able to do what he chooses straight away.

BeastieBoy, I agree that rule changes are not only essential they are critical if the game is to thrive domestically. The time waisted with penalty goals and scrum resets is bordering on absurd and a reflection of the inertia with which the game has been run for so many years however I do not agree with you on point 4. I understand why you entertain the idea but to have no Marks allowed at all would be to throw the baby out with the bath water. To eradicate the Mark would only incentivise kicking the ball away aimlessly and not to play it. Kicking duels are about as dull as dishwater and reflect not skill or courage or enterprise but too often a lack thereof. Wally Lewis, the Ella Brother's and David Campese are remembered fondly by the Rugby community not because of their kicking game though they each had one but for having the courage and skill to run and pass the ball and we love and remember them for it. Denying the defending team recourse to a mark will have unintended consequences however. There are very few professional rugby player's prepared to risk their next pay check by recklessly running as Campese so often did from his own 22. They must be encouraged to do so but in removing the Mark we only incentivise aimless kicking and the heavy collisions that with limited success administrators have sort to stamp out in recent years. In doing so they have penalised just about anything that moves. Leaving spectator's short changed, commentator's bemused and a plethora of player's cooling their heels on the sideline. Looked at from this perspective a mark discouraging such tactics is a regulator of play. A mark takes little time out of a game, certainly much less than the time waisted in attending to the injury's sustained in a collision or the time it takes for referee's to review and penalise players. Commentator's used to talk in terms of a player "diffusing the bomb." but with the Mark we have the opportunity to do just that without anyone getting hurt or sanctioned. Rugby needs to be more free flowing. I am the first to acknowledge that but to do so by eliminating the mark is in my opinion counter intuitive and will only result in a kick fest. The number of Scrums and Penalty Goals need to be substantially reduced perhaps by as much as half. Free kicks and tap restarts encouraged but in eliminating the Mark rest assured you will not encourage ball in hand Rugby but more kicking and there is already another game for that.

Dear Walter at the moment we are more Like NFL. We need many more rule changes to restore Rugby not a game of continuity and skill rather than just power and set plays.

In 1974 the average weight of a New Zealand back was 84 kg it is now 98 kg. The average height was 1.74 metres it is now 1.88 metres. England's 1991 world cup team had an average weight of 94.3 kg. At last year's world cup the average weight of the English Rugby Team was a whopping 105.8 kg. Legendary All Black hooker Sean Fitzpatrick played the bulk of his career in the pre-professional era. During his playing days he had a weight of 93 kg. His successor's Dane Coles and Codie Taylor both weigh closer to 110kg each. When World Rugby declared the game professional in 1995 they inadvertently changed the way the game would be played at the elite level. No longer would it be a game for all body shapes. No longer would light weight flyer's like Terry Wright or Russell Fairfax find a place on the Rugby field and more concerning for Rugby's future, parents no longer saw the game as a relatively safe alternative for their son's and daughter's to play. It became within a decade of going professional a game dominated almost exclusively by power. David Campese unsurprisingly many years ago flagged this and has made the point on several occasions since. Incumbent England Coach Eddie Jones only last week said much the same thing. The excess of power now in the game and the stoppages particularly at scrum time that surround it are detrimental to Rugby becoming an entertaining free flowing product and a safer more enjoyable sport to play and yet having made the most dramatic of changes World Rugby plodded down the blind side and refused to reflect the seismic shift that had taken place. Professional Rugby and a Victorian era rule book are not happy bedfellows. Rugby Union is the pre-eminent of the two world Rugby codes. Rugby League can only dream of the footprint Rugby enjoys across the globe and yet there are those in the Rugby community so fearful of being compared that they would have us change the shape of the ball itself. Let's ignore the doomsayer's and embrace changes that facilitate a more enjoyable, more entertaining and safer game. Having said this eradicating the mark in the 22 would in my opinion be counter productive. Only a few years ago the game was blighted by a spait of bombings or up and under's as they were once called and only penalised out of the game when a challenge for the ball that endangered the other player limited it's counter attacking viability. With limited space on the field and with a 110 kg hooker running at you a kick to the air would be for most of us that value self preservation prudent. I get that but that it should be deemed in many cases the only option is a worry and itself a commentary on just how limited the ability to attack is in the modern professional era. I want to promote a game where the David Campese's of this world are again prepared to chance their arm and have a go. Let's not incentivise kicking the ball away. With this in mind I would in fact extend the ability to take a mark right up to the half way line. The game is always best played with ball in hand. Come on Rugby, let's not drop the ball or kick it away !!

More Dicking around .. They needed three times as many rule changes to have a chance of restoring the games continuity and attracting spectators. The ones they have put in are fine, but here are some they missed. 1. Reduce Penalties and Field Goals to 2 points unless on kickers side of half way 2. No Penalties or Field goals within the defenders 22m 3. Quick taps allowed within 5m of the Referees mark. 4. No marks allowed

Got to be careful we don't adopt too many NRL rules otherwise we just become like them. vive la difference