I would have liked to see something done about the "Sinfield" i.e. hoofing the ball over the opponent's dead ball from miles away leaving them with a tap on their 20. I think there should be a maximum distance between where a ball is kicked dead from and the point where play restarts. so for instance if you kick it dead from more than 40 metres out the restart is moved forward a metre for every metre beyond the 40 that it was kicked from. So if you kick dead from 50 metres the restart is on the 30 and so on.

They have. Instead of a tap restart with 6 tackles you get a tap restart with 7 tackles

you reckon that our refs or video refs for that matter would be able to get their head around your proposal?

And would the ref have to take a tape measure with him to measure every metre beyond 40 metres and the video refs taking 10 minutes to decide the exact distance.
Talk about silly suggestions.

Bring out the Chain Gang like in the NFL.

Well they already have to see where 40/20s are kicked from and where kicks cross the touch line so I don't see why not. It doesn't have to be to the inch. Maybe in bands, 40-50 metres out, 50-60 metres out etc. I just think the rules should reward skill not just having a huge boot.

The biggest change I'd like to see is how the ruck is policed. I'd get rid of the 'dominant tackle' interpretation and simply have a set time that the ruck is allowed to last - no advantage for dominant tackles, no advantage for finding your front in attack - just a consistent time for each tackle before held is called, and once the ref calls held, all defenders to release and clear the ruck area immediately.
For me, that's the way we minimise the importance of 'wrestle' and get back to the game being a contest of attacking rugby vs brutal defence, not a matter of who is the best at controlling the ruck.

I agree with you on this but think it'd be tough to implement. I've always found it weird that you can hold the tackled player down "legally" and gain an advantage or hold him down "illegally" and be penalised. Either way you're holding down a player to slow the play the ball and gain an advantage and one way is legal and one isn't but they're both really the same thing for the same reason.

How is having a huge boot not a skill? If you can kick it dead from 50 yards plus, then it probably will bounce, meaning that you have found the turf and beaten the fullback, making it an accurate kick. Mot much difference to kicking it into touch.

Btw, are people really kicking it dead on purpose that often? You called it 'doing a Sinfield' but he kicked dead on purpose, maybe a couple of times in a season, and that was usually to kill time when we were winning in big games.

Im not sure how I feel about the seven tackle rule, it could lead to more accurate kicking, but in all likelihood it will lead to less teams looking for repeat sets and more looking towards a cross field kick or power play. It might make for more entertaining rugby, but won't help when we play any Aussie teams.

I agree with this. I think the whole "kicking it dead" thing has been overblown. Most of the time teams aren't aiming to kick it dead. They'd rather it stayed in play.
As you say for it to go dead it has to find the ground so isn't as "unskilled" as some would suggest and is also easily defensible. The fact that defending teams are happy to let these kicks go dead shows it doesn't have much of a negative impact on that team.

I'd have more sympathy with a rule change in this regard if we had Union-style, huge in-goal areas. As most RL in-goals are very short it's very difficult to get the ball to stay there and doesn't require much of a misjudgement/unlucky bounce for the ball to roll dead.

Yeah I'm ok with the kicking thing. Maybe if the kick is from your own half and it goes dead then the opposition starts on the 30m instead but if you punish the kicking team too much like the suggestion mention earlier then you won't see an improvement in kicks staying in goal, more a case of conservative kicks that are intended to finish well short of the try line so not to risk it going out and you'll probably see less kicks that stay in goal than you do now.

As for when teams drill it dead purposely, it is usually near the end of the game by a team that's winning and I've always thought it their right to use that tactic as they've gotten themselves in front in the match. The point made above about how short the in goals are here in SL is very important too especially when compared to the ones in the NRL.

Personally I'd look at any rule changes that enable contested possession - stripping should be allowed as should striking at the PTB. One of the reasons the game can get very dour is the emphasis on possession and position. Anything that can shake it up a bit is a good thing IMO.