Quote: Spookisback "Watched a couple of games from the 80s this morning and 20 mins of a championship game from last season …. Between 95 and 90% of the tackles I observed would be illegal under the new rules… one interesting observation was watching Trinity full back Gary Spencer … every drive he skips and ducks under the armpit of the attempting tackler… putting his head in a very dangerous position..,
Interestingly during the first ten mins of the championship game… the teams went set for set… aggressive running and tackling but not one…(I watched it twice to confirm) of the tackles in that period would have been legal.
I think we are in grave danger of ‘throwing the baby out with the bath water’!
I can see future defensive patterns being akin to rugby sevens where no one wants to commit to the tackle, for fear of offending or off loading'"
And I can see the offside line being reduced to 5 to compensate in some way and reduce the impacts.
The game will be a poor spectacle from 2025 I expect full of penalty kicks, penalties and tries. Defence will be none existent and territory will be teams camped in oppositions 20 forcing repeat sets.
Players like Mikey Lewis, Tomkins style players etc who like to duck and dive will get so many penalties for their teams it will be unfathomable.
One more thing…. International game. If the NRL are not doing this where does that leave international fixtures? If players in uk aren’t insured then surely they can’t play full contact under a different set of rules? The NRL would enjoy a huge gap i would think as how the NRL and Superleague would be coached for tackling would become quite different.