And that is the problem in British RL in a nutshell

It would be carnage if you let a defences line up that close. Defences that know the damage they can do it they spring up and put pressure on an attack.
Letting the defence play closer will change attacking teams to be much more cautious, run from acting half, get a good kick in probably early and then play a pressure defence to win possession in the opposition 20.

If you want to make attackers develop more skills, then give them structured defences to break down. I am constantly amazed at the defensive naivety shown, whether it be wingers stuck on their wings, markers sprinting all over the place or players following their opposite number around the pitch. Such defences can be broken relatively easily and it's that lack of ability in defence if anything which is preventing the development of attacking skills - not that that is as big an issue as being made out.

Put better defences in place and attacks will evolve accordingly.

not at 13-14 which seems to be the age the big lads take over, only to drop away at 16-17 when everyone else catches up,

i think the problem is at youth level, we are having kids play the adult game,

a smaller pitch with a smaller ten, would help these skills develop, id even go as far as to limit subs to put less emphasis on explosive power and more on stamina, maybe even cut a tackle off the count to force a more attacking style,

maybe a limit on running from acting half to one per set, or even as has been suggested in Aus, removing the props all together at youth level (though this leaves a clear and obvious problem of where we get props from)

and just for clarity, i am only talking about the game and players on a proffessional pathway here, not the amateur game as a whole

Correct.........suprised he didn't have to bid for the punch on ebay TBH.

What I,m worried about is that down under they have cleaned up and speeded up the play the ball area, when we play in the next world cup, we will be totally pedestrian and embarrassing.

The PTB is a right mess now and I think Wilkin is right in his constructive opinion, if we make it any slower we will be closer to American Football with all the defence piling in, complete with the occasional forward pass.

Defences are so "set" now after a slow PTB that I can,t see any half backs being developed (ever) to break the defence line other than a chip kick or a boot down field. For me 5 wrestles and a kick has no entertainment value whatsever, give me open rugby everytime.

Australia have just changed their approach to slow PTBs because it wasn't doing as you said. It was just making defences harder to breach.



No it was because defences then were less organised and players weren't as fit making it easier for sides to break them.

all teams want quick play the ball when theyre attacking.all teams want to slow it when theyre defending.it just gets boring if every time you have a slow play the ball it results in the usual 1 man drive.its then that ball players should earn their cash.a 5 metre rule in todays safety 1st rugby would just result in more safety 1st drives for most teams because theyre are only a handful of decent ballplayers.most supporters also have little patience when up and coming ballplayers make mistakes when fresh in the 1st team,which discourages them from adventuress play.
a reduced tackle count might encourage ball play though.u wouldnt get far on 3 drives and a kick would you regardless how fast/slow the play the ball was

anyone that says wilkin was slapped by senior.
I would like to see how they would react from the same "slap"

Imo, the slowing of the play of the ball this year has been ridiculous.
Even dominant tackles dont seem to have and greater advantage than a less effective tackle.
Its an issue that needs sorting.
There have been some very dull games this year, and I have watched many games, not involving saints that I have been infuriated with the refs.

If this isnt sorted I think fans will simply stop watching RL

I was proposing mainly kids rugby be changed to 5m.
My mate was over 6 foot, had a beard and about 16 stone when he was 13. Was never a great player whatsoever but got all the trophys, reps etc, Got to 16ish and everyone caught up and dropped out of the game. I was a midget until about 15, was brought up with the right coaching, played service area games but didnt really develop until probably post 16 when it was too late. Im now bigger than most people of my year. Trust me reducing the 10m rule would make a huge difference, saw it a thousand times.




100% true, we will be murdered, the NRL is a different pace this year.
Even when people were moaning it was slowed down properly, not this flop 3 men in culture we've got going on now.

If the RFL don,t sort this mess out, I can see me only watching a handful of games next season instead of my usual 20+ games.
Even watching some of the games on Sky have been a real turn off, and quite a few work mates have said the same.
I hope we get totally hammered in the internationals coming up shortly, then the Superleague can be showed up for what it really is, a game manipulated to suit the media of SKY.

You lot talk about the speed of the game like fixing it (Not that it is broken) would matter.



Look, the speed of the play the ball is dictated by the tactics in use by clubs. In Australia our play the ball has been organic, its has sped up and slowed down over time depending on what teams were doing to make it speed up and slow down.

This year we added a second ref, because the game had become so fast, a single ref was no longer able to do the job of policing the ruck along with all his other duties.

Players now get penalized for what players have been penalized for doing since Moses picked up a footy, slowing down the play the ball illegally.



Now England got crushed at the WC and you looked at other teams and you decided that it was because we had slow play the balls that we were good. What it actually was was a better tackling technique, but anyway, its not the first time you lot have been wrong.

So you went back home and artificially slowed down the play the ball thinking that would fix everything.



Speed it up, slow it down, it doesn't matter.

You have no ability to read and attack and know where to be in defense. Your clubs are JUST starting to realize that bringing in "Wrestling coaches" might be a good idea, its been happening in Australia for nearly 20 years.

In attack your game is based all around taking on a collapsing, panicked defense, something that takes no skill, very little reading of a defense, no number counting, any monkey could do it.


Basically, you built your entire premise for playing the game around capitalizing on how bad you are at playing the game!



No rule changes of any kind will ever change what is wrong with the British game. If you were flooded with the worlds best coaches today to fix all the problems at EVERY level, it would take 15-20 to turn these problems around.

Oh do come on! All teams want a quick PTB when THEY are in possession, an aspiration which seems to lose urgency when their opponents have the ball. I can`t be the only one to notice, surely??

Nothing like a true fan.



That job was well and truly done in the World Cup.