The six again rule

It’s only in Aus so even Wigan won’t benefit (!) but as far as I understand it for infringements in the tackle (holding down, slowing the ptb, etc) instead of giving a penalty they reset the tackle count. If a player needs talking to or giving a card then a penalty is given.

Worked well this morning and sped things up but must have been pretty tiring. Brisbane did more defending in the first half and looked shattered after an hour. Probably had more to do with the time off though.

I’m a fan of it but they need to work out what to do when teams would rather kick for 2 as I’m not sure how that works.

Isn't it used in Junior Rugby League?

I’ve never known it used in junior rugby league in the 6/7 years I’ve been coaching. They stop the game if it’s a penalty. There’s no kicking before u10s (I think, it’s been a few years) either out of hand or for goal so they get another 6 tackles from when the ref/coach restarts the game but they don’t just restart the tackle count like they are trialing in NRL.

I think I’m in a minority of not being keen. Early days yet I know but I’m not sure of the principle. I like the idea of fewer stoppages in theory but I’m not sure it will be positive for the game in practice.

I think holding is very subjective already and I think it will appear even more so with this new rule. As things stand a ref has to be sure It’s worth stopping the game for, with this rule I think psychologically the ref is more likely to give ones he might have let go. From what I’ve seen in the games so far there is no more consistency within games than there was before.

More importantly I think it will overly reward a team that gets on a roll early and it will reward less expansive play. In the games I’ve seen the teams that have given away a few of those in the first quarter never really recover. It doesn’t give the defence time to reset so it means the attacking team can make breaks more easily against a less organised, more tired, retreating defence. So attacking teams have to work less hard once they get on a roll

It has created games played at a brutal pace which has been good to watch at the start but in the last quarter teams have run away with it. This will be partly to do with lack of match fitness but I think it might become part of the game. It will reward teams who are big and quick rather than skillful is my fear