BY BARRETT WILSON
A FEW years ago I was watching an England rugby union international match and as half-time approached I got up to make a cup of tea.
They were in the process of scrumming down so I didn’t expect to miss much. My wife had just had a coffee, so the kettle was still hot.
When I got back in front of the telly they were still messing about, up and down, up and down. “There must be something better,” I thought.
The average time that the ball is in play in a rugby union match is 38 minutes. That’s not value for money, and it got me thinking about a game that could provide more action for the paying public. So from my experience of playing and coaching both codes of rugby I came up with Freeball.
The process took a long time. It’s hard to go through things in your mind and imagine how it would work. The main aim was to come up with rules would which make it possible for as few stoppages as possible.
It meant fewer players in order to create space, no scrums or play-the-balls and no kicking of the ball at all. Everything would depend on skilful ball handling, sleight of hand and clever moves.
There are ten players per side with up to ten subs, and six tackles, by which time a team must score or hand the ball over. Scoring happens by getting the ball over the scoreline with or without grounding it.
In play, on tackle completion, the ball is immediately released on the ground and is dead, until the next attacker picks it up and passes it into play.
The offside line is through the position of the dead ball and is indicated by the position of the line judges. There is no offside once the ball is back in live play.
A maximum of two tacklers is allowed and the attacker cannot offload the ball once contact with a defender is made. Defenders cannot clamp the ball. Tackling is below shoulder height. “No score” restarts are from the halfway line.
There is no need for any technology as the ref and line judge’s decisions are not disputable. Thus there is no need for anyone to speak to the officials.
The aim is that Freeball will be an alternative for Rugby League clubs to provide an extra income stream with a small percentage of that income going to the MNDA.
I am hoping that the people running Rugby League will accept the game and give it some trials and look to adopt it at some time in the near future.
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