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If you could change the laws of rugby, what would you change?

Jets

Paul McLean (56)
Staff member
The flaw in that is when a team is 5m out from the line, and send a big bloke charging at the oppo. Under your rule the best they could possibly do is hold him up over the line.
.
While I agree with you point I don't see that as a bad thing. Better than a shot a goal.
 

AngrySeahorse

Peter Sullivan (51)
Sorry if this has already been suggested. This is more creating a rule rather than changing though.

If the oppo gets the ball in their own 22 (either from your team or their own team - doesn't matter who took it in) & they punt it down field from their 22 to be caught on the full by your team in your own 22 then you get the usual options to either play on (by kicking back, passing or running the ball out of the 22) or calling the 'mark'. However, the additional thing I'd add is that in calling the 'mark' you'd also have the option to have a line-out or scrum all the way up the field on the oppo's 22m line.

This is not to eliminate kicking but to encourage intelligent kicking. It would require the kicker to look up & see where the oppo outside backs are & would require them to really be accurate rather than just punting it down field & hoping for the oppo to make a mistake.

I'm still as sick as a dog so I havent really thought about the negatives of this which I'm sure there are but on the face of it I think this would be good.
 

rugbyskier

Ted Thorn (20)
If a defending team infringes in their 22 and the attacking team successfully kicks a penalty goal, the restart is a scrum at the point of infringement (attacking team feed) instead of a kick from halfway. This would discourage teams from giving away cynical penalties in the knowledge that they're conceding 3 points instead of 7 and then getting the ball back down the other end.
 

louie

Desmond Connor (43)
i'd let pass teams pass back into their 22nd to kick the ball out of the full. I miss that rule. Thought it gave the game more structure.
 

Goddess

Stan Wickham (3)
I would give attacking teams six opportunities to score on each possession, and then they would lose it. Also, the defence wouldn't be allowed to try recover the ball on the ground and they have to go back 10 metres after each tackle. And I'd get rid of flankers, pushing on scrums and lineouts.

Made me snort my coffee. Normally only Poorly Thought Through makes me snort coffee.
 

It is what it is

John Solomon (38)
Thoughts;
- Scoring team kicks off
- Kick off location is varied like in NFL. Example would be if a try is scored from a kick then the restart is taken by the scoring team from their 22m line instead of half way. We want running tries and this way the receiving team will receive the ball in better field position.
- Conversion attempts should be drop goals like in Sevens not place kicks.
- No kicking out on the full from anywhere.
- The whole body of unattached defenders needs to be behind last feet NOT just that defender's feet......will stop leaning over interference probs
- When rolling mauls are stopped either the ball must be passed or a single unattached ball runner must emerge. Stop this 'use it once, use it twice, regroup' boring BS. Spectators want to SEE the ball not have it hidden for long periods.
- Stop the practice of players clearing out defenders any more than 1 metre past the ball. It's become ridiculous with halfbacks now being tackled out of the play and held down some 3 metres plus past and away from the ball. Penalties and Yellow Cards are a must.
- Clear the deliberate obstruction at the advantage line on the sides of attacking mauls/rucks caused by deliberate loiterers from the attacking team. It's shepherding and must be penalised and Yellow carded.
- Touch Judges to assist by alerting ref to blatant violations of above more often.....short term pain, long term gain.
- Line out throws that aren't straight should result in a line out throw to the non offending team NOT the option of a scrum. The ball went out, it's a line out NOT a scrum.
 

redstragic

Alan Cameron (40)
Get rid of rules in the rucks. Will cut down on penalties. As long as no one is getting killed........

Look at he s15 final as evidence of no over officiating at he breakdown.
 

Bardon

Peter Fenwicke (45)
My big one would be fix the scrum. Other than that I wouldn't make any changes. I enjoy a lot of sports but I have no desire to see rugby be changed to be more like any other sport, rugby is my favourite for the simple reason that it is in fact the most like rugby.

However with regard to off-field there are plenty of things that rugby could learn from other sporting codes, both in terms of how to do things better and also in terms of looking at the mistakes other sports made and not repeating them in our game.
 

Dam0

Dave Cowper (27)
This is a subtle one, but it needs to be done because it currently makes no sense.

Drop goal:

Dropped Goal. A player scores a dropped goal by
kicking a goal from a drop kick in general play. The
team awarded a free kick cannot score a dropped
goal until the ball next becomes dead, or until an
opponent has played or touched it, or has tackled the
ball carrier. This restriction applies also to a scrum
taken instead of a free kick.


I would add to the bolded part "unless the free kick was awarded due to a scrum offence".


The reason is caused by the following anomaly: Blue team trailing by 1 has a scrum 10 m out right in front of the posts, they plan to flick the ball out to their first five and take a dropgoal. Red team engages early and the ref awards a free kick to Blue. Blue elect to take another scrum, and from this scrum they cannot kick a drop goal. In other words, Red has benefited from their wrongdoing.
 

waratahjesus

Greg Davis (50)
Make kicking penalty goals only available on infringements inside the 22. Force people to take more attacking options on infringements outside it.
 

jollyswagman

Ron Walden (29)
One of my "pet peeve" rules is that stupid law of fielding the ball with one foot in touch - deeming the ball out. Nothing more irritating than an (otherwise) great kick down into the corner that would have landed in the field of play being caught by a winger while doing his best inspector gadget impression straddling the side line - similarly at the try line when a ball if plucked from the field of play and then grounded in goal.

One other element of play that I am not a huge fan of is the "the mark." It should be "play-on" in my book though getting rid of the mark may in fact encourage more kicking while teams are on the attack which I would not like to see.

Oh....and would it be possible to add a rule whereby Will Genia would only be allowed to make one "box kick" per half each game and if the first one was shit, he would then forfeit his option for the second.
 

mudskipper

Colin Windon (37)
Penalty kicks for goal can only be taken when the penalty has been given within the opposition’s quarter. Otherwise the penalty choice for the captain is either it’s kick for the line for a line out or tap and play on.
 

Viking

Mark Ella (57)
Read one of Matt Burkes articles on SMH, he mentioned stopping the clock during penatly kicks and converstions. Although i am not a fan of Burkes bias journalism I do agree with this idea. He mention actual playing time is only something like 30minutes (due to all the stoppages).

So stop the clock for ALL penatly kicks and conversions.
 

p.Tah

John Thornett (49)
Les Kiss raises a good point after the lose to NZ:
Referee Nigel Owens awarded a five-metre scrum to the All Blacks after Carter's first attempt at a game-clincher was deflected wide then touched down, behind the posts, by Eoin Reddan.

"If you go for a drop goal and miss then why should you get the ball back from a missed kick?" asked Kiss.

"That shouldn't have been their advantage. They went through it and missed it as we were good enough to stop it.

http://www.espnstar.com/other-sports/news/detail/item817990/Rugby:-Ireland-seek-drop-goal-review/
 
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