Speed kills: How the six again rule tilted the balance of power in the NRL

The NRL club bosses who voted unanimously to reject Australian Rugby League Commission chief Peter V’landys’ change to the kick-off rule would have had second thoughts after Penrith became the first team in premiership history to win a season’s opening five games by 20 points plus. Some of the tries the Panthers and other teams have scored were consecutive, without the opposition touching the ball, whereas the V’landys rule would have allowed the non-scoring team the option of receiving from the kick-off.

Now, however, after Penrith were humiliated 32-16 by the Bulldogs who scored the opening three tries, maybe the Panthers would like the mercy rule as well. With a Panther sinbinned and Canterbury capitalising on three repeat sets to Penrith’s one, scoring their second try off one, coach Ivan Cleary would have welcomed the opportunity to receive the ball from the kick-off. Five minutes after the Panthers drew level, Bulldogs forward Jacob Preston scored following successive six agains and Penrith did not score again.

There is a clear link between repeat sets and the need for an optional kick-off rule but remarkably, when the NRL summoned their most experienced and successful coaches, including Souths’ Wayne Bennett, Penrith’s Ivan Cleary, Melbourne’s Craig Bellamy, Brisbane’s Michael Maguire and Canberra’s Ricky Stuart to a December meeting to discuss the proposed rule changes, no-one voiced any concern that the expanded remit of the six again rule from the 20-metre line would render a change to the kick-off rule inevitable.

Perhaps Bennett – a vocal advocate of both repeat sets and a change to the kick-off rule – saw the link then but said nothing at the meeting, although he was very forceful in seeking an expanded number of bench players.

Speed has become the defining element of the game, and it was the difference when premiers Brisbane lost to the Cowboys. The Dragons are winless, and their spine is the slowest in the NRL, unable to make a break, or capitalise on one. The clubs who load up their bench with plodding middles and have halves slow in the hands and feet haven’t adapted to the faster rucks. The Panthers are still the team to beat for the premiership, partly because the expanded use of repeat sets suits them.

Repeat sets and, importantly, the fear of conceding them, results in quick play-the-balls which offer opportunities for running halves and locks. Penrith has the best in Nathan Cleary and Isaah Yeo who is running more and linking less. They have reversed the order of an attacking set, playing adlib off the early gaps and then exploiting the momentum with rehearsed plays.

With nearly half the games over the last two rounds blowouts, the balance between defence and attack has titled too far to attack.

The Panthers don’t have a middle forward on the bench. Scott Sorensen is filling that role and is offloading the ball. However, the Bulldogs loss exposed Penrith’s vulnerabilities, particularly a defensive disconnect on the left side between five-eighth Blaize Talagi and centre Casey McLean. Coach Cleary will fix this, but his squad lacks depth. The Panthers have a super 13 but not 17. Furthermore, Origin will stall them to the extent they have four certain selections for NSW, and possibly seven.

Bennett, as a seven-time premiership winning coach with more than 40 years at six clubs (including the Broncos and Rabbitohs twice), is entitled to have an influence on the game’s rules. He has also been an advocate of more expansive play in the back field, as opposed to the Panthers’ formula of using their backs to carry the ball out of their own half, without a forward touching it.

When I asked coaches such as Bellamy or Stuart why they don’t release a forward to link with the backs, akin to Manly’s Steve Menzies attacking the halfway line as if it were the tryline, they argue forwards are already fatigued. True, when fans see forwards saunter for three tackles to join the attack after a kick receipt, it is often assumed they are lazy, rather than exhausted.

Now, repeat sets are doing the job for them. A team receives from the kick-off, makes 30 metres in three tackles; a six again is awarded on tackle four, and they are over the half way line with a try coming. Rugby league’s most celebrated try – Alex Johnston breaking Ken Irvine’s 50-year-old try scoring record – came from a six again inside the Rabbitohs’ half when David Fifita passed to Latrell Mitchell who made a break and set up his left winger. Even the fittest of defences can’t stop a barrage of six agains, or a penalty/repeat set combined. The opening try in last year’s grand final came in the second minute when the Storm were penalised on the fifth tackle, a six again followed and then a Brisbane try.

According to NRL data, there have been more tries from a tackle set starting with a six again (22 per cent, compared to 18 per cent last year) and less from penalties (17 per cent this year, compared to 20 per cent). These statistics derive from the first six rounds and the trends are clear. Repeat sets lead to tries and increasingly the four pointers will start from a team’s own half.

V’landys has told a News Corp publication that “only Barney Rubble and Fred Flintstone don’t like the six again,” implying that its critics belong in the Stone Age. Former and current players and coaches appreciate the value of repeat sets in speeding up the game. The problem is almost no-one, other than the referee, knows the infringement which caused the referee to signal another six tackles. Rugby League Central has rejected the suggestion of the referee or bunker identifying the offence via his microphone, such as “Josh King holding down”, rather than the generic “ruck infringement”.

Furthermore, there is great disparity between the number of repeat sets called, with round 5 producing three in one game and 15 in another. The Eels conceded a single repeat set in round 3, were guilty of eight in round 5, and three in their loss to the Titans last week. Referee inconsistency, or Parramatta spooked?

With nearly half the games over the last two rounds blowouts, the balance between defence and attack has titled too far to attack. Newcastle were beaten by 20 points last weekend and won by 20 the previous round. The Titans lost by 14 points at home but won by 42 away over the same period.

Penrith were early masters of six again, gaming it when introduced to the extent they trapped the Bennett-coached Rabbitohs in their own half in the 2021 grand final, forcing the NRL to swap six agains for penalties.

Now, the NRL have swapped back and co-captain Yeo has denied they are again deliberately conceding repeat sets early in the tackle count. But he was guilty of the first two against the Bulldogs.

No team or player is exempt from them. The fear of six agains has led to faster rucks, more tries, including successive ones from a team’s own half. The game has changed. Speed now kills, especially if you don’t have it.

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