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Opinion

Who is making the decisions on the NRL field?

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Roar Guru
25th July, 2020
22

When I first started following rugby league in the 1950s, the outcome of a scrum was unpredictable.

The ball was required to be fed into the middle of the scrum and we had hookers who actually hooked for the ball. Now there are hookers in name only.

Sides no longer push in the scrums so the size of your scrum is basically irrelevant. The size of your forwards now has more to do with their abilities in general play and softening up their opponents than anything to do with winning a scrum. So why do we still have scrums? Who knows?

Touch judges used to run onto the field with their flags raised to report infringements. When was to last time you saw that happen in the modern game? Even when they are basically on top of the play, touch judges and referees would rather leave the decision to the bunker. Better to have someone else take the blame if the decision is wrong. And heaven forbid if a touch judge actually comments on a blatant forward pass.

So what exactly does the bunker do? It does whatever it wants to do. Let’s say a referee refers a try to the bunker for it to check that the player has maintained control and grounded the ball. The first thing the bunker will do is check that everyone is onside.

Hang on, did I ask you to do that? I asked you to check the grounding. That is all I asked you to do. But no, the bunker will basically check everything. The referee has already made a decision on all aspects apart from the grounding of the ball. So now the referee is no longer in charge of the game.That has been delegated to the bunker.

But, ironically, the bunker can’t rule on a forward pass. Why? Once again, who knows? So if there has been a forward pass, the bunker will replay everything over and over and over again to try and find some other reason for disallowing the try.

Pity the players can’t whip out a pack of cards to pass the time waiting for the bunker to get its act together.

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So the bunker had usurped the referees’ authority as far as tries and other referrals are concerned. That’s a bit unnerving for a referee. So to maintain the status quo, let’s introduce the six-again rule. Instead of letting a captain decide whether he would rather have a penalty in relation to an infringement, let’s give that decision to the referee.

Even commentators, in a lot of instances, are confused about why a team has been given six-again. But that’s okay because although a referee might mumble something at the time which the defending captain might or might not hear, who cares anyway because as there is no stoppage in play and you can’t make a captain’s challenge.

And how long is an NRL game anyway? Well, that depends. It could be 80 minutes or maybe 82 or 83 minutes or anything up to 90 minutes. Except for the finals where there has to be a winner and a loser, there is absolutely no point playing extra time. Yes, I know we have penalty shoot-outs in football but these can no way be compared with the bash and barge of the modern-day NRL game.

And the seven-tackle rule also needs to be revised. I know it was introduced for a valid reason but it wasn’t meant to capture a failed field goal attempt or a kick from within the 20-metre line that just dribbles over the dead ball line but could have easily resulted in a try.

If a rule that has been introduced for a valid reason has unforeseen consequences, then change it. It’s better to admit a mistake and change it then let it linger and be a blight on the game.

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