Rugby League defensive lines
Ruck and Maul: The problem here is that the defensive line is flat, while the attacking line is usually back from the hindmost foot. This means the attacking line has very little space to work in, even less if the defence uses a "rush" defence style. The result is that teams use a big man at 12/13 to try to brute-force their way over the advantage line. Defences are also using the tactic of having a single player rushing up ahead of the rest of the defensive line at the 13 to cut off the ball to the wings. I believe one solution to this is to push the offside line at rucks and mauls back from the hindmost foot to 5m behind the hindmost foot.
1. Players would be required to either be bound into the ruck/maul, or 5m back so no more unbound defensive pillars. (exception: one player from each team acting as halfback is allowed; his offside line being the hindmost foot of his own ruck/maul, and he must stay within a metre of the ruck/maul (as in the scrum).
2. A player unbinding from the ruck/maul must either rejoin as he does now (behind the hindmost foot and next to the hindmost player), or retire to the 5m offside line.
3. A player at the 5m offside line may join the ruck/maul provided he does so from directly behind the ruck/maul ("directly behind" meaning that he advances ahead of the 5m offside line within the width of the ruck/maul. If he steps forward outside the width of the ruck/maul, then he is offside.
4. As per the scrum and line-out exceptions, a player may run forward to receive a pass from a ruck/maul.
5. At the moment when the ruck/maul ends, any player who has detached from the ruck maul and has not yet rejoined, or who is in the act of retiring to the offside line, or who is advancing from the offside to join a ruck/maul, remains offside until he runs behind an onside teammate.
NOTE: This is not a new suggestion. Anyone who thinks this is too complicated or unworlkable would be wrong. In 2005, myself and another ex-referee mate got together to organise a trial match. We got two teams of 14/15 year old 2nd XV players at a local school and spent a half hour briefing them on this trial ruck/maul offside law. A current referee was at the briefing and he refereed the match which consisted of 30 minute halves with a brief break half way through the first half for a Q&A session . The kids had no trouble understanding how it worked and the only problem we had was the odd occasion of players acting as pillars and forgetting to retire. It happened less and less as the game went on. and IIRC not at all by the second half
. The kids really enjoyed it and said it was a much more open game than they are used to. If teenagers can follow this, then adults ought to be able to.
Scrum & Line-out: Reduce the depth of the offside lines for the side throwing in.
1. For scrums the offside line for the team throwing in should be the hindmost foot of the No. 8. For the side not throwing in, the offside line should be 5m back from the centreline of the scrum.
2. If the ball is lost by the throwing in team at the scrum, the offside lines swap, so the ball winning team's players can come up to their offside line, and the non-ball winning team have to retire back to theirs (this is what teams often do when a ruck/maul is lost)
3. For line-outs the offside line for the team throwing in should be 5m back from the line of touch, For the side not throwing in, the offside line should be 10m back from the line-of-touch.
4. If the ball is lost by the throwing in team at the line-out, the offside lines swap, so the ball winning team's players can come up to their offside line, and the non-ball winning team have to retire back to theirs.
5. If a ruck or maul forms at a line-out, the ruck/maul offside lines apply.
Use of scrums as penalty making machines
This has become a real blight on the game, needless resets as teams try to gain kickable penalties through scrum ascendency. We need to stop this happening without making the scrum a group hug (like RL scrums)
1.
As I suggested in another thread, make all scrum sanctions a penalty that can be kicked to touch for a gain in ground and retention of the throw in but cannot be kicked at goal. This keeps the scrum as a contest, the reward for a dominant scrum being possession and field position, but preventing it from being a points generator.
2. Increase the value of the conversion to 3 points, and reduce the value of the penalty goal to 2 points. This keeps a high value on having a good goal-kicker.
The Australian National Rugby Championship did both of these things very successfully in a trial last season. All the bleating about this being a
"cheats charter" never eventuated. Teams that infringed up being punished with 5 or 8 points rather than 3 points.
3. Take away the incentive to get a scrum turnover by wheeling. If a scrum is wheeled, the original team that threw the ball in retains the throw in.