Quote: Him "It's partly why I've changed my mind on scrums. I used to agree with the majority opinion in RL that they're unnecessary.
Now I think they can play a role in opening the game up. '"
I think in some ways they already do. Players set up in a different way than the normal defensive line and can open the game up to training ground set peices. Danny McGuire in an international game which escapes me a few years back is a good example. Im sure there are millions of others.
Quote: Him "
The big (on-field) advantage Union, football and other sports have is that a team can be significantly "worse" than the opposition but still be competitive. In League it generally/often leads to high scorelines against the poorer team. So you can have Japan/Argentina etc being competitive and giving the top nations a game whereas in League they'd get blown away. And a big reason for this is the nature of the game. League allows pressure and dominance to be built up and it's incredibly difficult to turn that around. '"
Leagues very physical based nature tends to allow fitter, stronger teams to get on top. lopsided internationals and challenge cup games show this a lot I have said this to friends/family etc.
Football allows you to put ten men behind the ball if you are a "worse team" and this is incredibly hard to break down.
The huge variation in tactics and rule interpretation in a RU game allow a "worse team" the opportunity like we saw for Japan, people who watch more RU than me could easily come up with more examples. I play RU a bit, but I wouldnt go as far as to say I understand it!!
Quote: Him "
So I've thought for a while now we could use a way of helping not so good teams compete with top teams. Imagine if France and Wales could give England a game in RL. We'd have a ready made annual Tri-Nations which would hugely help RL in this country.
I reckon if we re-introduced competitive scrums it COULD, and I stress the word could, help lesser nations be competitive. Teams could use scrums and kicking to touch to help them turn around the dominance and momentum that is built up by the better teams.
I understand the reasons against it, I just think we desperately need more competitive international teams and the nature of our sport currently doesn't help in that regard.'"
For sure, an example would be the 40/20. IMO one of Leagues best rule innovations for a long time and nothing to do with fitness/physicality.
It would be great if England could play France and Wales regularly and they could compete but maybe that would require more than rule tweaks. Wales and France need more players in the top leagues, need to keep developing their own players and for sure need to play eachother and the big three more often.
