Now we're almost in the off-season, I'm just wondering what tweaks could improve the game. Starter for ten, here are mine:

1. No water-carriers on the pitch unless after a try.
Scrums are now a protracted rest. Tired players make for open play. Let's keep the game relentless.

2. If a referee believes that a player affected by a penalty has exaggerated the effect, no penalty.
This is to cut out the play-acting, the accidental-tripping over a grounded player, the passing the ball to the player in the way, the flopping to the ground when brushed against when playing the ball. There should be an obligation on the attacking player to promote the game.

3. If a player is injured before a drop-out, the player must leave the pitch and must either be replaced or sit-out the defensive set.

4. Automatic penalty for contact with the head should only apply where contact is deliberate or dangerous.

5. Video refs to rule only on issues of factual black and white (grounding, touch), not matters of opinion or judgement (obstruction).

Fill your boots.

Shorten the season. Scrap loop fixtures and put the onus on the clubs to sell more tickets, merchandise and commercial packages to make up the shortfall.

Agree on point about video referees - keep them to binary decisions.

Disagree on four - if there's one thing the sport can't afford right now, it's a compensation claim for CTE.

Bring back quick penalties
Speed up drop outs
Play on when players are injured (minus head injuries)
Just speed the game up..

I posted this on another thread, which kind of echos your ideas.

Trying to improve our game to help to sell it has been well debated, and here's some things I'd like to see in the future.
1) Refs to cut out all the fannying around at the play the ball.
Once held is shouted players must release or be penalised. There's too many ocassions of the ref shouting held, and the ball carrier then knocked to the ground.
Hands must be removed from the ball carrier on the shout of held.
Ball carrier must play the ball backwards, with his foot.
2) Refs to cut out all the fannying around at scrums.
Lets stop one team rushing to form a scrum to stop the clock and then disband, have a drink, tie shoelaces, check who's on I'm a Celebrity, attend to head wound, have another drink.
Put a clock on from when ref awards scrum to whichever side, and if a team is not packed down within 30 seconds (or whatever appropriate amount of time) then they're penalised.
Make scrums a proper contest again, and make everyone pack down properly. I know there was an attempt with scrum halves sent off for feeding, and then hookers for foot up, but this can't be impossible to solve.
3) Goal line drop outs, again taking a crazy amount of time for a drink, tie shoelaces, check who's on I'm a Celebrity, attend to head wound, have another drink. Get a clock on it, and if not done within the allotted time, then a penalty.
4) Next TV deal, get some advertising slots with the TV provider agreed for RFL use in marketing and selling the game/events.
5) Substitutes - we need to increase the amount that forwards are on the field of play during a game to try and give some space for backs to be creative. Could keep 4 subs but cut down the interchanges to eight or six. Were getting too many games where players are on from nought to ten minutes. Bit ironic with the OP, but were not American Football.
6) Make SL a 14 team competition playing each other home and away once. Keep the magic weekend if you have to, but that might be better served as a weekender for the last 8 or last 16 of the challenge cup.
Whoever is top of the league is crowned champions.
7) Item 6) then gives space for mid season international/representative rugby and end of season international tournament.


Move the challenge cup final away from the August bank holiday and the rail travel nightmare of getting to London. Also, allow more time from the semifinals to the final for the opportunity to sell this game.
9) Sky need a shake up, the presentation is stale, and the dissection of every tackle for possible infringements is boring and not what we want to hear. Just describe the action, please, and leave it there.
Do we really need this large cast of Eddie, Terry, Barry, Jon, Brian, Angela, Phil, Bill and Stuart (I bet I haven't named them all, either)
10) Great to see a GB tour back on, hope the Aussies will come over here too. These need to feature in a cycle of one home and one away every two years.
11) Get William and Kate or Harry and Meghan to present the Challenge Cup. Harry is patron of RFL, so he should be duty bound to do something to help promote our game.
There's other things I'm sure, and there's no doubt some better suggestions, but the bottom line is the game needs an overhaul.

No option to kick penalties for two points. Conversions after tries only.

Reinstate the competitive scrum! Its just a joke as it is. If kick and clap can put together a decent scrum, why can't the real game??

the RFL to get a decent marketing arm

Return to Franchising with each Franchise having a feeder club and a group of amateur clubs that provide the junior players coming through. Franchise clubs cannot sign junior players outside of their group of amateur clubs. This way the participation at amateur level really matters to the Franchise clubs.

Practically Leeds would be a Franchise, Hunslet its feeder club supported by the likes of Oulton, Hunslet Parkside, Stanningley, East Leeds etc.

On the field:
1. Players need a wake-up call as to their responsibilities to the game - constant cheating on the field, talking back to refs etc. things need to change
2. Two referees to speed up the game
3. No video ref
4. 30 seconds to make a drop out and kick a goal/penalty
5. Whoever forms the scrum to stop the clock stays in it
6. 30 seconds to form a scrum
7. Those in the scrum cannot take part in the first tackle after the scrum
8. Reduce interchanges
9. Reduce the number of subs

Taking the two is one of the better options in a tight game ??

Certainly an end to the pseudo injuries around scrums, penalties and most importantly, drop outs.
I'd even go for retrospective penalties on players who become lame as soon as the game is delayed for one of these incidents and suddenly bounce back to life once the game recommences.

Also, throwing or kicking the ball away, which used to be a sin bin offence. When did this change ?

That's an interesting one

10. 8 pints the night before.
11. A full English the morning of the game.

Ah, a true man of the seventies!

You obviously don’t watch RU it is not unknown for scrums to be reset 3 or 4 times an d then a penalty to be given. Scrums waste more time than anything.

There is a clear consensus that the game has slowed down too much, with repeated stop-starts. I've said it in other threads, but the 80 minutes of the Grand Final took 120 minutes to play out. The game finished at 8.15pm. That cannot be a good thing.

I think Sky might rescue it, actually, because it isn't good for their scheduling. They've already brought the game forward by 15 minutes because they were taking too long.

We prided ourselves in two things: non-stop action and honest players. We've lost both. And the crowds go down .....

I blame Ganson partly. He refereed games as if we'd turned up for a refereeing exhibition. His underlings reflect this.

As for competitive scrums, they are a joke currently, but anyone who remembers when scrums were genuinely competitive will remember repeated attempts to get them right. Even in Union, it becomes a lengthy thing. It's more of an argument to get rid of them altogether rather than introduce more delays.

Have you not seen how long it takes a Union scrum to form??

Thease are the conversations that need to be taking place. But will the game even think about them? We need a very strong leader with a clear defined agenda that everyone owners, fans, players & TV buy into. My personal view is we should stop being obsessed with speeding up the game & reward skill & fitness (the product of attention to training) A good long look at the rules with a view to their relevance in the full time game may a start. As a product of the game in the 60’s I feel the game then opened up when defences (not as slick as today) tired. Maybe reduce interchanges or go back to the principle if you were replaced your day was over? I won’t hold my breath while we get everyone to start acting as one for the good of the game.

Before any tinkering, the game needs to take a long, hard look at itself; introducing rules specifically to deal with 'fannying about' ignores the perfectly serviceable rules that already exist to deal with it - so before I did anything new, I'd announce the 2019 season as the end of cheating, slowing down the game, gang tackles, interfering at the ptb and feigning injury to milk a penalty. Send a strong directive to all clubs, coaches and players, then penalise the shiz out of anyone who offends - until they learn not to.

After one season of that, look again to see what problems persist - *then* deal with them by way of new or amended rules, if necessary.

Off the field - I like the idea of franchises and feeder clubs, and a ringfenced group of junior clubs; that would, by its nature, force SL clubs to invest time and effort into supporting community clubs and establish a clearer pathway into pro training - which can only be a good thing.

Fully agree with the 1 st part , warn the coaches,clubs and players the laws will be applied , then apply them

Scoring team should restart the game , lessening the chances of quick repeat try's by unevenly matches teams , plus reduces the gain of taking the 2 to a degree

I played amateur with a an ex schoolmate who played pro as well. Part of his usual pre-game ritual was throwing up the effects of suggestions 10 & 11.

I DJ at Yorkshire Carnegie and a few seasons ago, one scrum attempt took 7 minutes!!

Proper gang tackles can stay for me - who doesn't like to see their team batter opponents struggling to make it out of their own 20? (though as a Leeds fan I have to admit it's been a while...). But by all means reduce the number of tacklers permitted to lie upon a grounded player to two anywhere between the respective 20m lines.

Scrap the vid ref.

Does stopping the game for head injuries really achieve anything in terms of player welfare? It certainly creates scope for faking players to give their team a rest and pays lip service to (real) concerns over concussions but I'm less sure of other purported benefits.

The business of defenders lifting a runner's leg to get the ref to call held, only then to topple the player after the call (and often lie on) needs sorting. The laws are clear, why not apply them?

Too many good moves are ruined by tenuous obstruction calls which, it has to be said, are most prevalent in the televised games (wonder why, see suggestion #2 for poss solution).

I saw Crooks being fed black coffee and puking up regularly due to the aforementioned diet!

Tweaks to improve the game...

Harsher consequences for ref's making bad calls... i.e. the Mason Caton Brown try given last year that had a major impact on the game.

after warrington had 3 people sinbinned in the cup against bradford in 2003 for it, the first season it was introduced. no one else EVER had anyone sinbinned.

Can you tell that scarred me?

So given we are struggling to attract fans,players ,investment,sponsors and administrators to the sport , you want to get rid of the officials as well ?

Have you ever ' reffed ' a team sport ?