Rugby League’s New Normal

Rugby league is coming back, but not quite as we know it. The RFL board met for another hard session of procrastination and kicking the can down the road on July 6.

No decision was reached on whether promotion and relegation to and from Super League will take place in 2020. In addition, no definitive fixture schedule has been set beyond the triple-header planned for August 2 featuring teams with games to make up on the rest. The release of a full schedule was delayed firstly until July 8 before it was then announced that it would not be finalised until some time this week. The suggestion was that there has been objections to Catalans Dragons’ playing home games with a capacity of up to 5,000 in line with French government guidelines at a time when UK clubs are still forced to keep their stadium gates closed.

As I write this there are suggestions that only six of the 12 Super League clubs can return to training, despite the fact that we are now just 19 days away from the proposed restart date. The remaining six are still said to be in discussions with their players about wage cuts. The clubs feel that reductions are necessary so long as games are to be staged behind closed doors. The players are understandably baulking at the idea of a lower reward for what is likely to be a more demanding if shorter schedule. Though we don’t yet know dates and times of matches we do know that plans are afoot to introduce some midweek fixtures to ensure that the Grand Final can be played in November. This is to prevent the current season from dragging on into the winter months and therefore allow the players a reasonable break before the 2021 season is due to get under way in February.

Amid the procrastination and possibly under the influence of the lockdown bubbly some key decisions were made about the way the game will be played in 2020. The Covid crisis has forced many sports to think carefully about how they can adapt to make competition safer and rugby league is no different. It arguably presents more challenges than most other sports because of the level of physical contact involved. Being gang-tackled by three toothless Wigan front rowers with meat pies where their brains should be almost certainly carries a greater risk than....say.....having your pony-tail pulled by Dejan Lovren at a corner kick.

Experts can’t agree on very much during this pandemic. Some will tell you that it’s all over and that it is time to go back to that awful state we used to call normal. Others will tell you it is only just beginning and that popping down to your local Tesco Express for some milk and a packet of Minstrels is an extreme sport that could see you meet your end by the middle of next week. The latter view has only been bolstered by the Prime Minister’s decision to introduce the compulsory wearing of face coverings from July 24. The horse is several furlongs into the distance on this one and Johnson shutting the gate now makes little sense except to say that it is entirely in keeping with his government’s mixed messages and muddled thinking in response to the pandemic. While the truth about the dangers posed by the virus is probably somewhere in between the two extremes that are so often peddled, one thing that they seem to have reached a consensus on is the notion that rugby league in the age of Covid-19 will be safer without scrums.

During the 2020 Super League season If a ball is knocked on, thrown, kicked or batted into touch then the game will restart with a tap for the opponent. This decision has been met with some pretty mixed reactions. There are those who have long held the view that scrums in rugby league are about as much use as Matt Hancock’s protective ring around care homes. I have not seen a rugby league scrum fairly contested since Scrumdown was an ITV highlights show. Nevertheless they do contribute to the spectacle in their own way. A bit like Michael Ball on The One Show.

The thing about scrums is that they take six king-size forwards out of the defensive line. The effect of this is that it makes space for teams to attack. To put on what Stevo used to call a ‘planned move’ and what modern coaches might term a set play. As the game gets more and more structured and players and coaches rattle on about processes, building pressure and completion rates, it needs the opportunities provided by scrums more than ever. In the early weeks of the NRL since its restart some of the best passing movements and the most spectacular tries have originated from scrums. Far from scrapping them in the Covid-19 climate, the Australians have taken advantage of the enhanced potential for excitement from scrums that comes from allowing the team feeding the scrum to choose whether they want to form the scrum 10m or 20m in from the touchline or whether they want it in line with the mid-point between the posts.

It’s not just about entertainment. The absence of scrums will alter the rhythm of the game. It will lack variety in the way it looks. It may also affect the game tactically. The long, raking touch finder is another of the game’s arts which might not be top of the list of skills that fans want to watch but can be an integral part of a team’s game plan. Previously it gave everybody a rest and allowed the kicking team to at least set up their defensive line in anticipation of what would be thrown at them from the resultant scrum. The new arrangement means it is theoretically possible that your halfback’s cool, measured kick for territory will be rewarded with the opposition’s rapid, 18-stone winger retrieving the ball, taking a quick tap and coming at you at a rate of knots before your tired pack have advanced 20 yards down the field.

If that prospect offers little respite the introduction of the ‘6 again’ rule will test the stamina of the athletes even more. In a bid to discourage defenders from lying on a tackled player or from wrestling in an attempt to slow down the play-the-ball a fresh set of six tackles will be awarded to the team in possession instead of a penalty. The rationale is similar to that which has seen off scrums, cutting down the amount of time that players are in close contact and therefore potentially lowering the risk of transmission. Yet that will bring its own challenges to the players. As irritating as they can be the award of a penalty against your defence for ruck infringements buys time to reset and get a bit of breath back in readiness for the next wave of attack. Now teams will need to be ready to defend that next play instantly. In the early weeks of the NRL resumption this had a seismic effect on the fatigue levels of players not used to it and we saw some big scores as a result. That imbalance has levelled off a little as the weeks have gone by and coaches and players have adapted. Still, be warned that the close, intense battles you tuned in for may turn into processions in the early going.

Even as teams adapt defensively there is an argument that the 6 again rule fundamentally changes the game too much. If you are carrying the ball off your own try-line you may prefer the solace of a penalty and a kick to touch to the alternative of six more hard carries starting in difficult field position. And what about if you are transgressed against within kicking distance of the posts? The chance to break a tied score is a thing of the past unless one of two things happens. Either the referee deems an infringement so cynical that the offender is yellow carded for a professional foul, or the ball comes loose meaning that the attack can’t just get on with the next play-the-ball with a new set. It is not hard to envisage a time during a game when a player who has been infringed upon in the ruck develops a relaxed attitude to ball retention. Referees already struggle to decide whether a ball has been stripped in the tackle, dropped or voluntarily lost in a bid to milk a penalty. That problem has the potential to get significantly worse in situations where the attacking side feels that a penalty would be altogether more beneficial than a fresh set of six.

With such a short time to get ready for the restart even for those clubs with pay agreements in place, and with significant rule changes which could make rugby league look and feel quite different to what we saw before lockdown, the game that comes back on August 2 might not be quite as you know it.

After four months without it and as good as the NRL has been, I am still desperate for Super League to start. Even if it is laced with controversy, blowouts and quick-taps.