Four clubs have agreed to trial experimental rule changes in their Boxing Day festive friendlies. The three changes will be trialled in the Leeds v Wakefield and Batley v Dewsbury fixtures and are hoped to enhance the aesthetics of rugby league. READ MORE ON THIS STORY....

Four clubs have agreed to trial experimental rule changes in their Boxing Day festive friendlies. The three changes will be trialled in the Leeds v Wakefield and Batley v Dewsbury fixtures and are hoped to enhance the aesthetics of rugby league. READ MORE ON THIS STORY....

About time.



Terrible.



What's the point?

Hmm, not a fan of any of them to be honest but willing to see how they affect the game before passing judgement, however think that the charge down change would be too much advantage to the defending side and result in seeing players reluctant to try something different, like a little chip over the top maybe?

As far as the third one is concerned, why not just revert back to the "loose" forward role?

Isn't this kind of discouraging teams to go for a 40/20?
What happens if you go for a 40/20 but fall slightly short of the opponent's 20m line? This new rule would see the scrum feed a further 20m up field than where the ball went out of play. Seems a little bit counter-productive in my opinion.

The chargedown rule is good, I don't really like the other two.

Nah, it would be a scrum where it goes out. A tap 40 only occurs if it goes dead in goal.

I like the 40 metre tap rule. too many teams go for the get out of jail big boot trick. more place kicking will be involved now and keep the game flowing a little more.

Don't fix what's not broken. None of the rules needed changing, so why change them?

This is madness. If this trend for individual countries changing the rules continues, how many different sets of rules will rugby league have in years to come?

There appears to be nothing to stop, for example, the Russians, the French, the Serbs etc...all making up their own set of rules.

In fact, why stop at individual countries having their own unique set of rules. We could have Yorkshire rules, Lancashire rules, Southern England rules etc....

The game is becoming a joke. What other serious sport allows this nonsense. The game in the UK has far more serious and pressing concerns for the governing body to be prioritising (clubs in serious financial difficulties, a licencing system that is seemingly unable to carry out a basic financial audit of a clubs financial health before awarding a licence, the loss of millions in government subsidy to name just three areas in this country to be going on with).

Is there not someone in the RFL and the Australian RL Commision hierarchy who actually gives a monkeys about the wider global vision of the game? The national governing bodies of the game need to get together to firstly set down one set of rules which everyone should abide by, and secondly come up with a system (presumably similar to other sports) where suggested rule changes are looked at and either rejected or implemented globally.

I like the first one, puts more emphasis on a tactical kicking game and may encourage halves to work more on this side of the game. Something many many players sorely need.

The second, I would suggest, is to attempt and create some more 'off the cuff' play on the last, especially in the event of an initial kick being charged down. Could work either way but I'm fairly skeptical as to whether it'll make any difference at all. One thing it will effect is how defences deal with short range grubbers, we may see a lot of wild swipes at the ball.

The third is clearly designed to create more attacking play, however it's just handicapping the defence by allowing the attacking team to drop a player out. If the defence has to keep 6 in the scrum whilst the attack only need 5, it seems a bit daft to me.

Stop messing with the rules. All countries should play to international rules.

Agreed. We need the RLIF to become more like FIFA in terms of controlling things like the rules. But that would require the Aussies to give the RLIF a larger role, which I can't see happening.

Its a trial for christs sake not changing the rules. RL has always been about innovation. Maybe we should go back to lineouts and 15 a side.

I like the first two changes.

If you cannot kick the ball dead it puts more emphasis on good kicking. On the last you can either go for distance or have to be perfect to avoid losing 40 metres or you have to have an attacking kick or run on the last.

Either way it will make for a more interesting attacking game.

The rule about the charge down is also good. It will mean kickers are under more pressure on the last tackle the defence can take a chance and attack the kicker hence leaving a gap for the attack to exploit or they can stand back.

Both these rules will mean a more attacking less metronomic game. We often criticise RL for five runs and a kick. These two rules will encourage more options in attack as if you get the kick wrong you wil be in trouble.

The scrum rule makes sense because we do not have contested scrums and it is a way of rewarding attacking play. However the defence has the option of putting a push on if they have an extra man. It adds a degree of uncertainty into the scrum or the attacking play.

95% of scrums now consist of the feeding team winning the scrum and having a withdrawn forward running the ball in. This will create different options for a team.
Wigan fans should love all these rules!