ARU to put experimental law changes for NRC to public vote

It seems that the ARU are anxious to attract League followers in Australia by tweaking the current rules for the new NRC competition to make Union more attractive.

There's no specifics yet as to what rule changes they intend to put to a public vote.

It also seems they have the approval of the IRB to do this.

It got me thinking as to what rule changes I would make to enhance Union but in reality the only big area ATM that stands out to me is the accursed scrum.

Over the last couple of years while sitting in stadiums watching time tick away while the ref orders reset after reset I've had a lot of time to ponder this issue and what occurred to me is that sometimes when I see a knock on or a forward pass I immediately begin praying that the ref hasn't seen it and doesn't give a scrum - sometimes even when it would benefit my own team.

So my question is should the rules be tweaked so that some offences rather than resulting in scrums should result in free kicks or should the offended team be allowed to choose between a scrum and a free kick / tap or could the offended team be allowed a choice between a scrum and a lineout at the same point in the pitch etc, etc?

I know a lot of people including myself are very nervous about tinkering with the scrum because it is such an integral part of union but to be honest the way things are ATM the scrum has the ability to turn a good game into a bad game from a spectators POV and something has to be done about it.

1. Touchline challenges. One failed one per half and your a goner. Superseding ref TMO calls.
2. Stop clock after scrum is declared failed and restart once the ball is eventually freed.

3. Yellow/red cards for refs that don't apply the laws.

I've got an idea - you reduce the scrum size by taking out the flankers and making the game 13 a side, that would open up the pitch and create more gaps. Once you've done that you could maybe increase the ball in play time for the viewers by taking out rucks, when a player is tackled and held down you could let him back heel the ball back to a team mate, give the team six goes at this before turning the ball over. Change the team names around a bit as well - more animal/agressive names .

Perfect TV viewing for the Australian TV "rugby" audience   

Or else we could just tell the Aussies to **** off and leave our game alone.

Yes I'm aware that a discussion of this sort tends to get us Union types up in arms about the 'league-ification' of Union but to be fair there are serious issues with the scrum that need to be sorted once and for all.

I often take novices to matches and everything tends to be going quite well until you have a 'scrum-athon' that goes on for 5 minutes and sucks the excitement and energy out of the game.

Once this happens a few times in a match you can see that the chances of them coming back to another match any time soon is unlikely.

I can see where the ARU are coming from because if you sorted out a couple of things in union you would have a product that they would see as being able to compete with League and Rules.

Mac, I'm more concerned with the grassroots of rugby like my club - we don't have "scrumathons" because the scrums are much less likely to collapse, I don't think we've ever had to reset more than twice and that tends to be more from not being able to grip on soft surfaces than deliberate pulling down.
I really don't want the game I play/coach/watch to be diluted any further or turned into RL to create a "product" that helps the ARU solve a TV viewer problem.

Fair enough.

I'm looking at it as a spectacle and also from the perspective of attracting new fans.

I just find it a pity that one part of the current game is preventing it from being practically perfect (from an avid Union perspective of course   ).

Another possible rule change that has been on my mind for a while now is giving a team that have had a successful penalty kick at goal the choice of either allowing the other side restart from half way (as now) or restarting themselves from halfway.

I've always thought it unfair that a team that concedes a penalty are then given the opportunity to pin their opponents back inside their own 22 at the opposite side of the pitch.

It might not make the game more exiting but I think it would be fairer and it's another disincentive to give away a penalty.