Round 20 Experimental Rules

[Graham]

Several rules regarding the scrum, offside penalties and the use of the bunker will be trialled in two dead rubbers during the final round of the NRL.

The NRL will limit the use of scrums and minimise stoppages for bunker referrals and penalties under a set of rules to be trialled in this weekend’s dead rubbers.

In some of the most drastic rule changes experimented with at NRL level, offside penalties will result in set restarts while scrums won’t be packed when the ball is kicked into touch.

The rules will be tried in Brisbane’s clash with North Queensland as well as Manly’s date with the Warriors on Sunday.

Under the rules, balls kicked into touch will simply be treated as a handover with a play-the-ball in a bid to have more play time.

“This will speed the game up and encourage teams to run the ball on the last tackle rather than kicking it out all the time,” ARLC chairman Peter V’landys said.

When scrums are packed for errors, only players designated as forwards pre-match will be able to pack in them, as well as those who replace them on the interchange.

Teams will be able to get the referees’ permission to change a player’s designated position if there are injuries.

In the event of an offside, the referee will signal six again with a penalty to be awarded in the case of repeated infringements, professional fouls or when the ball has been lost.

But if the attacking team is ruled to have lost the ball deliberately to try and gain the advantage of a full penalty, the defensive side will be awarded a scrum win.

Meanwhile, the bunker referral process will also change in the dead rubbers.

If a referee believes a try has been scored, the bunker will review the play while the goal kick is being set up. 

They can then come over the top of the on-field call and tell the referee to pause the kick at goal if they believe they may need to reverse the try.

If that rule had been in place last week, the bunker could have reversed Jaxson Paulo’s try for South Sydney after replays clearly showed his leg going into touch.

If a referee wishes to refer a decision but he does not believe a try has been scored, that can still be sent straight to the bunker.

“The Commission’s focus is to ensure our games are as entertaining and free flowing as possible for our fans,” NRL CEO Andrew Abdo said.

“We are a sports entertainment business. It is important to continuously test innovative ideas, aimed at a better fan experience.

“Like we have in previous seasons, we will use games which will have no impact on the top eight to test the potential rule changes. 

“We will obviously also take on board feedback from the players and clubs involved and report back to the commission during the off-season.”

[DavidM]

Stop play coming to a halt for just about every injury , often way in backfield and when they’re getting treatment . Ridiculous protocol of it being in the hands of a trainer ... who works for a team . The warriors trainer stopped it the other day and the bloke was limping off . So many unnecessary injury stoppages . 

[Graham]

So who packs down in the scrum is to be policed. What a waste of effort that is. Only forwards or designated forwards can pack down.