Daily telegraph story quote of the day.
“I had some dialogue with the referees through the week and they’ve been given directives to stamp their authority on the game in the first 15 minutes, with setting the tone, with the speed of the ruck, and what they want.”
Cowboys coach Todd Payten. Was he really meant to say that publicly? Anyway, the six-again stats back it up, and maybe Toddy has let the cat out of the bag now.
To me this has been so obvious with teams conceding a heap of 6 agains early handing a team dominant possession leading to a few tries. It also fatigues the defensive team making a come back near impossible but despite fatigue entering the game they apparently get more disciplined. The storm and Parra game was exactly this scenario and I think Canberra had 10mins without the ball in a game. Panthers have also had the start of their games set them up for easy victory through massive possession differences.
The problem with this early blitz is how the refs are choosing which team to penalise early. Whoever is in charge of the refs has to go. This is a ridiculous directive basically saying to enforce rules for the start then ignore them once the preferred team has the advantage.
Another story last week pointed out some sides conceded 6 agains consistently on 1st or 2nd tackle as they would rather a 7 or 8 tackle set with a set defensive line then a scrambling defence resulting in a late 6 again and possible 10-15 tackle count which we see often leading to a try.
If they refereed the rules as they were and sinbin for intentionally holding players down regardless of field position or tackle count, or when a team consistently break the rules as Storm did when wrestling got out of hand, coaches would have gotten the players to learn quick smart not to risk holding a player down and roll away like back in the day. The rule changes are all directly related to referees losing control of the game over recent years.
Replies
The games corrupt, there's pretty much an infringement at every single ruck but it's only a 6 again if the ref feels like it and each team is policed differently
So many teams are scoring 40 points these days. That feels very different to bygone eras. I don't like it.
It's the legally illegal way of the NRL calling the shots and outcome of matches. Corruption at its subtle best
I heard a journo on NRL360 the other day saying that conceding 6-agains must not be determining matches because teams like Panthers and Storm rank high for conceding 6-agains. This view is very misinformed. The Rugby League Eye Test has shown that the better defensive units strategically concede a 6-again early in the tackle count to help set their line. Or as the RLET puts it, if you're not cheating you're not using 6-agains properly!