6 Agains and faster game the cause of increased injuries?

[The Daddy]

This RL fan thinks so. And tbh I agree. Not a fan of the continual need to change the rules and this idea that the sport needs speeding up. It's getting like basketball. 

A lot of the 6 agains I see are just ridiculous and I have to say the change of rules to increase ruck speed were not needed either. The sport is already fast and explosive already. In a lot of instances the tackle is barely completed before the ref is calling for the ruck to be cleared. 

The need to speed the game up in my view needs to be dialled back and doesn't improve the game quality at all. 

 

[dkw]

Absolutely 100% it is causing more injuries, the majority of injuries this season have been muscular, sprains and strains, this can only be down to the speed of the game and training.

[jacksy]

I hate the whole idea of the game must be played at an ever increasing speed. The constant rule changing and now 6 agains.

I wouldn't be suprised to learn its causing more injuries.

[Blind side johnny]

On the other hand I for one got really frustrated by the length of the tackle/lying on and general mucking around. How can this be eliminated without a reset?

[The Phantom Horseman]

18 minutes ago, Blind side johnny said:

On the other hand I for one got really frustrated by the length of the tackle/lying on and general mucking around. How can this be eliminated without a reset?

Yes, this is the key point. We've had umpteen years of coaching staff becoming better and better at teaching the subtle arts of slowing down the PTB, with the emphasis on wrestling, getting extra men into the tackle so it takes longer to peel off, getting the defender's hand(s) on the ball etc. So as you suggest in that respect we have to pick our poison...we either accept more of the messing around, or we have the current crackdown.

We could look at alternatives though such as reducing the 10m to 5m, or maybe somewhere in the middle. How that would work out I just don't know, but it might reduce the frantic desire for quick PTBs to get over the gain line and win the "arm wrestle", and result in a need for more creative attacking play and perhaps result in fewer injuries if the game becomes less of a bashathon.

[The Hallucinating Goose]

While I think the sped up game is making for an exciting watch, I do feel that it is unnecessary. Our sport was already one of the fastest and most intense. I must say as well, that if anything these 6 agains have gone too far the opposite way; some tackles are hardly completed and a new set is being called for lying on. These people are only human, forgive him for taking a millisecond longer to get up off the floor after legging it around for an hour.

Edited April 21 by The Hallucinating Goose

[Just Browny]

We have a problem but I don't believe it's because of the six-agains. We get this spate of injuries in the first few months every year; last year Warrington got serious, and very similar, injuries to Lindop, Ashton, Leyland and Hayes all in April/May.

I'd love to know the underlying reason but we get this every year now and we collectively forget that we had it in the years before.

[Bring back GB]

Six again is a dreadful rule. I'm pretty sure there are more set restarts than there were penalties for the same infringements before the rule was introduced. Some referees are far worse than others for constantly giving them.

[sam4731]

I remember that during COVID, while all other sports were trying to find ways of slowing the game down to preserve player welfare in a potentially dwindling player pool, we were doing our utmost to speed it up. No scrums (I concede, necessary for H&S), decreased interchanges and most of all the dreaded six again.

[up the robins]

1 hour ago, The Phantom Horseman said:

Yes, this is the key point. We've had umpteen years of coaching staff becoming better and better at teaching the subtle arts of slowing down the PTB, with the emphasis on wrestling, getting extra men into the tackle so it takes longer to peel off, getting the defender's hand(s) on the ball etc. So as you suggest in that respect we have to pick our poison...we either accept more of the messing around, or we have the current crackdown.

We could look at alternatives though such as reducing the 10m to 5m, or maybe somewhere in the middle. How that would work out I just don't know, but it might reduce the frantic desire for quick PTBs to get over the gain line and win the "arm wrestle", and result in a need for more creative attacking play and perhaps result in fewer injuries if the game becomes less of a bashathon.

Best put it out there before someone else does, is this why KR have had less injuries.

[Click]

5 minutes ago, sam4731 said:

I remember that during COVID, while all other sports were trying to find ways of slowing the game down to preserve player welfare in a potentially dwindling player pool, we were doing our utmost to speed it up. No scrums (I concede, necessary for H&S), decreased interchanges and most of all the dreaded six again.

What sports were slowing their games down to preserve player welfare?

And what were they doing

[The Phantom Horseman]

15 minutes ago, up the robins said:

Best put it out there before someone else does, is this why KR have had less injuries.

Not sure what you are saying here, is what why KR have had fewer injuries?

[phiggins]

2 hours ago, Blind side johnny said:

On the other hand I for one got really frustrated by the length of the tackle/lying on and general mucking around. How can this be eliminated without a reset?

I don't think there's any problem with penalising second efforts, laying in the ruck etc. But at the moment referees seem t be expecting defenders to bounce off the ball carrier at an unattainable speed. And the six agains are being given for rucks that are quick anyway. 

[Big Picture]

3 hours ago, jacksy said:

I hate the whole idea of the game must be played at an ever increasing speed. The constant rule changing and now 6 agains.

I wouldn't be suprised to learn its causing more injuries.

Not only that either.  It's also turned the game into the 5 drives and a kick its' detractors always said it was and made it too fast paced for newcomers to learn the by watching it.

2 hours ago, Blind side johnny said:

On the other hand I for one got really frustrated by the length of the tackle/lying on and general mucking around. How can this be eliminated without a reset?

Reduce the defense retreat to 5 metres so defenses don't need to hold up the next play to have time to get set for it first.  HIA failures would be lessened as well.

[The Future is League]

6 hours ago, The Daddy said:

This RL fan thinks so. And tbh I agree. Not a fan of the continual need to change the rules and this idea that the sport needs speeding up. It's getting like basketball. 

A lot of the 6 agains I see are just ridiculous and I have to say the change of rules to increase ruck speed were not needed either. The sport is already fast and explosive already. In a lot of instances the tackle is barely completed before the ref is calling for the ruck to be cleared. 

The need to speed the game up in my view needs to be dialled back and doesn't improve the game quality at all. 

 

Can you and others who think that the 6 again rule is casing injuries why Leeds have more or less an injury free squad and are even loaning out players?

[The Future is League]

1 hour ago, The Hallucinating Goose said:

While I think the sped up game is making for an exciting watch, I do feel that it is unnecessary. Our sport was already one of the fastest and most intense. I must say as well, that if anything these 6 agains have gone too far the opposite way; some tackles are hardly completed and a new set is being called for lying on. These people are only human, forgive him for taking a millisecond longer to get up off the floor after legging it around for an hour.

It was a bit longer than a millisecond and fans on the terraces were get very frustrated at the messing around at the ruck.

[The Phantom Horseman]

7 minutes ago, The Future is League said:

Can you and others who think that the 6 again rule is casing injuries why Leeds have more or less an injury free squad and are even loaning out players?

I have no empirical evidence for this, but I suspect there's a correlation between the number of tackles a team is making per game, and in particular the tackles where they are losing the collision, and their rate of injury. 

So whilst it's true that the teams that don't have a lengthy injury list are likely to be at the top of the table, it might also be true that being a dominant team makes you considerably less susceptible to a string of injuries. 

[The Future is League]

1 minute ago, The Phantom Horseman said:

I have no empirical evidence for this, but I suspect there's a correlation between the number of tackles a team is making per game, and in particular the tackles where they are losing the collision, and their rate of injury. 

So whilst it's true that the teams that don't have a lengthy injury list are likely to be at the top of the table, it might also be true that being a dominant team makes you considerably less susceptible to a string of injuries. 

Or perhaps different training methods, which see's the players better prepared for match days. Perhaps as well different pre match warm ups that we don't see.

[phiggins]

1 minute ago, The Future is League said:

Or perhaps different training methods, which see's the players better prepared for match days. Perhaps as well different pre match warm ups that we don't see.

Quite possibly. There will always be teams with less injuries than others, and some with more.

But in general, there seems to be more injuries across the league, and it's not far fetched to say that the increased speed is a contributing factor. 

[The Phantom Horseman]

1 minute ago, The Future is League said:

Or perhaps different training methods, which see's the players better prepared for match days. Perhaps as well different pre match warm ups that we don't see.

Well that's going to be impossible to disprove, but I'm not sure I'm buying it, all the SL clubs have professional, qualified S & C coaches who will have all done very similar training courses and I'd be very doubtful that the fact we seem to be seeing far more injuries this season is down to a sudden drop-off in training, conditioning and warm-up techniques at a significant number of clubs.

[The Future is League]

4 minutes ago, The Phantom Horseman said:

Well that's going to be impossible to disprove, but I'm not sure I'm buying it, all the SL clubs have professional, qualified S & C coaches who will have all done very similar training courses and I'd be very doubtful that the fact we seem to be seeing far more injuries this season is down to a sudden drop-off in training, conditioning and warm-up techniques at a significant number of clubs.

Different coaches have different training methods. For instant Michael Maguire is a fitness fanatic when it comes to training and pre match warm ups for his players compared to someone like Wayne Bennett who has different training methods who at times lets his players have down time.

[up the robins]

1 hour ago, The Phantom Horseman said:

Not sure what you are saying here, is what why KR have had fewer injuries?

People have been commenting how we have mastered the dark arts of slowing down the ruck by slinging In A third nan at every opportunity, and we have done really well so far with injuries over recent seasons.

Our injuries are possibly lower because we apparently are up there as the biggest  spend on backroom staff, which Lakin alluded to recently.

 

[The Phantom Horseman]

21 minutes ago, The Future is League said:

Different coaches have different training methods. For instant Michael Maguire is a fitness fanatic when it comes to training and pre match warm ups for his players compared to someone like Wayne Bennett who has different training methods who at times lets his players have down time.

I don't doubt that. It's still some way short of indicating a link between different conditioning methods and injuries.

I think repeated collisions under pressure are a more likely indicator. For instance, I think the likes of Bradford and York, both of whom were fairly dominant physically in the Championship, have suffered far more injuries so far this season than last season, and I doubt it's to do with inferior conditioning coaching in 2026 to 2025.

[The Phantom Horseman]

24 minutes ago, up the robins said:

People have been commenting how we have mastered the dark arts of slowing down the ruck by slinging In A third nan at every opportunity, and we have done really well so far with injuries over recent seasons.

Our injuries are possibly lower because we apparently are up there as the biggest  spend on backroom staff, which Lakin alluded to recently.

 

Again, that's a comforting narrative if you're a HKR fan, but I find it far more plausible that teams that are dominant in overall play (such as HKR recently) and making far fewer tackles, and not being on the back foot defensively all the time, are likelty to suffer fewer injuries.

[sheddingswasus]

4 hours ago, jacksy said:

I hate the whole idea of the game must be played at an ever increasing speed. The constant rule changing and now 6 agains.

I wouldn't be suprised to learn its causing more injuries.

The rule is poor. It should be simple. If there is interference at the PTB then it should be a penalty. Cutting down on the wrestling at the PTB would also help to speed the game naturally