Why? Most of them just eliminate scrums which are a waste of time.

I quite like this one:

■ During the final five minutes, the clock will be stopped following a conversion or penalty goal until play restarts at halfway.

You always get opposition teams who are clinging onto a lead amble back to the kick-off while the unfit touch-judges take an age to get into position.

Yep, the general aim of the changes is to speed the game up and try and cut out any time wasting.
The only one I'm not particularly keen on is the quick tap coming back, but the official ruling is worded strangely and I might not have interpreted it correctly.

I'll reserve judgement on the others until I see them being enforced, but I don't see why they shouldn't work.

The 40/20 rule change is a good one - we all know scrums are pretty much pointless...

Quick taps - I don't mind as long as the defence who haven't made it back 10m aren't penalised if they tackle the attacker. Otherwise we get the ridiculous situation, like in Union, where the defence are effectively penalised twice. Once for the original infringement and then for not miraculously teleporting themselves 10 metres downfield.

20m tap from 40/20 - unnecessary. A scrum is perfectly functional and provides a bit of "variety" to play. Also makes no sense if other kicks to touch aren't restarted with a tap.

Zero tackle from dead ball - Why? Makes no sense to give an extra tackle in this situation. 6 tackles is plenty to get a team from their 20m over halfway. Especially as the first run after a 20m usually gets good metres.

Handover rather than scrum - Incongruous with the 40/20 tap ruling. Why get rid of the scrum in this situation but not from a knock-on? It's just making the game more and more one dimensional.

Can't talk to refs - I understand why this is brought in, as players were talking to the ref simply as a tactic to slow the game down. But does it need a rule? Just get the refs to tell them to go away. Also it's difficult to define, most of the talking to refs happened during a stoppage in play anyway.

Clock stopped in last 5 mins - Nope. The final 5 mins is no different to the other 75 mins of play. Also I'd say the touch judges appear far from unfit to me and rarely is the game held up for them despite the long distance they have to get from underneath the posts to their kick off positions. If a team is hanging onto a lead the ref has the ability to currently stop the clock if he thinks one team is slowing the game.

Just seem unnecessary rules to me. The getting rid of scrums is a mistake and will only lead to more boring, percentage rugby.

Just watch your skipper every time he gets up to play the ball. How he gets away with walking past the marker to play it is unbelievable.

That's Sinfield buggered then.

If were not careful we are going to end up with different games being played in different countries with no one actually playing official rugby league rules!

Good job that's not a super league rule then

I like the rule changes the NRL has decided, however over here the RFL will probably be slow to implement at least some of these rules.

Quick taps If you've received a penalty then the defence should be punished by having to defend quickly. This is a great change and is also helped by this rule Only able to talk to referee during tries, injury break, when referee is issuing a caution, and half time this stops the tactic of talking to the referee to help your defence get set or to give them a rest.

Zero tackle from 20-metre restart I think this is a good compromise as I wouldn't like to see us do the rule Union does where they go back to the spot of the kick. It discourages a negative long straight kick, and rewards the returning team. However as a side affect it will also punish good little kicks into the in goal, which may just roll out.

40/20 restarts On one hand taking away the scrum doesn't make it backs vs backs any more, however having a scrum allowed the defence to get their line sorted. Having a tap you could be against a disorganised defence, therefore I can see advantages and disadvantages with this change.

Restarts from kicks out on the full It removes another scrum requirement, and speeds up the game.

Stopping the clock in final 5 minutes This stops the negative and unsportsmanlike slow walking back to halfway.

Goal-kicking time limit I'd actually give them 1 minute to kick conversions, a professional should have kicked it way before their limits of one minute, 20 seconds or one minute, 40 seconds.

Deterring the crusher and cannonball tackles Fantastic to see the NRL are trying to protect their players from these dangerous tackles.

All these rule changes will mean 3 things.
1) The coaches will try to find a way round them
2) The players will struggle with them, and if they do they will try to bend them, ignore them or "cheat"
3 The fans will struggle with them and will still blame the match officials if their team loses even if it down to the the incompetant players.

I've never subscribed to the theory that scrums are pointless, agreed they're not competitive but they're quick and act as a pivot for a set piece or planned moved with reduced numbers spread across the pitch. They're analogous to a free kick at football, they're not competitive but we accept them.

The problem with scrums is because they arent properly ' held ' together they usually break before the ball is released and therefore they arent any benifit to a set move

Absolutely - no rule change required, just proper implementation of the existing rule; it's become SOP in SL in the last couple of seasons to step off the mark to play the ball, probably as a result of another form of cheating - rolling around in the ruck, pretending you can't get to your feet, in an attempt to impede the tackled player from getting a quick play the ball.

The ruck needs tidying up in its entirety - no question.

2 refs?