Rugby Scoring System.

If I was in charge of the scoring system I'd change it so that......

A try is worth 6 points and the conversion only worth 1.
Penalty's from outside of the 22 are worth 2 points
Penalty's from inside the 22 are worth 3 points
A penalty from a scrum outside of the 22 is not kickable at goal.

Their are no doubt massive flaws in my system but I do think that it would encourage attacking play.

I would keep tries, conversions and drop goals the same.

I would make penalties worth 5 points, but you could only kick at goal for offences inside the 22.

Welsh Premiership are trialing a new scoring system this season. A try is worth 6 points. All conversions, drop goals and penalties are worth 2.

A penalty try is automatically worth 8 to avoid wasting time with a pretty unmissable kick from right in front.

Also you have to have 8 in a scrum. So if a forward is yellow carded then a back will have to go in.

Not sure how its working out, but someone else may be able to give their view.

I can see the idea of awarding more points for a scrum, it should encourage more attacking play and less kicks, however it will mean more cynical play when defending, as there is a greater incentive to kill the ball and give away a 'cheap' penalty.

I'd keep the points as they are, but I'd like to see more yellow cards for killing the ball 5m from the line.

Leave the points scored the same, just change the bonus points win amount to +2. Straight away teams would want to score more tries as the possibility of getting 6 points compared to 4 is a big advantage. Likewise getting a try bp loss would probably give you a haul of 3 points (if you stayed within 7), so well worth going for.

If you really wanted to see the points rack up, add an extra point for every two tries scored over 4, it wouldn't happen often, so wouldn't overly skew the boards, but is a good incentive to a team that gets out in front early to keep on scoring.

LondonTiger wrote:I would keep tries, conversions and drop goals the same.

I would make penalties worth 5 points, but you could only kick at goal for offences inside the 22.

Make sure you drop the maul twenty five yards out then.

Exiledinborders wrote:

LondonTiger wrote:I would keep tries, conversions and drop goals the same.

I would make penalties worth 5 points, but you could only kick at goal for offences inside the 22.

Make sure you drop the maul twenty five yards out then.

Would still get a YC if I was reffing though. Every deliberate offence would get a YC from me. Sure for a while we would see 12v11 but they would learn - eventually.

Only change I would make is to make kicked scrum penalties worth 2 points, possibly even 1.

Although I'll be interested to hear how the Welsh experiment goes.

The problem with any change to the scoring system is that, whatever you do, the coaches will immediately work out how to manipulate things to their own advantage, whilst doing all they can to change their own team's practices in order to minimise any benefit to the opposition. "attractive, attacking play to excite the spectators" won't be a factor in their thinking.

Quite simply, in my opinion, the scoring system is what it is. We all know the rules, we all know what a try or a conversion or a penalty is worth. By and large, it works pretty well.

Bonus points..? I think Sky worked it out not so long ago that they had made very little difference overall. They compared league tables with bonus points to what they would have been without them and only a couple of minor places here and there were different and then only by one or two positions. Having said that, I think they have kept some games alive, either the winning team going for a fourth try or a losing team trying to get within 7 points, so there has been some benefit.

The sum of it all is, you can tinker with scoring systems until the cows come home but it won't make any difference to the entertainment value of a game. The players will always do what the coaches tell them to and all the coaches are after is the "W".

Another thing is, that as soon as one change goes through and is found to be ineffective, there will be a hankering for another change. Let's give 8 points for a try and only two for a penalty anywhere. Then some genius will come up with something like 8 points for a try scored by backs who receive the ball from outside the 22 and only 5 points for a try scored by forwards pushing over from a 5 metre scrum or a catch and drive from a lineout. Oh, and if a right footed kicker drop kicks a penalty with his left foot from the left touchline it's worth double.

Meh.

Messing about with the scoring system can encourage all sorts of cockamamie ideas. Let's leave well alone, not open a can of worms and keep the chance of subsequent daft ideas at the end of a very long pole.

It's very tempting to tinker, but don't forget that as recently as the 1960s (possibly even early 1970s?) a try was worth only three. Then, incrementally, it made it up to four then five. The balance we have now is probably about right - ideally a game is won with tries but a side that concedes cynically and persistently will tend to be punished appropriately on the scoreboard.
If we're going to tinker with the scoring how about an NFL touch: make all conversions from bang in front but on the 10m line. Should be a guaranteed seven, but... It seems inherently unfair that some of the most aesthetically pleasing and technically brilliant team tries end up with the hardest conversions, while scrappy forward grunts (...ok, an art form in themselves, I know) and sometimes fluky interceptions tend to be under or at least much nearer the posts.

My problem at the moment is with the penalty try. It seems to me very subjective and inconsistent when it comes to repeated collapsing of a 5m scrum or of resulting mauls. So is the related carding. This can puzzle and frustrate spectators (ok, I admit it, I always find myself feeling that attacking England should get more than they do and defending England never be penalised ). In these days of wired up refs, it would help players and spectators alike if they were instructed to warn a defending captain that a further potential try preventing offence in the next phase of play - ie scrum or maul - will be a penalty try and a card. One other penalty try related change I'd make would be to have the conversion from in line with the location of the offence. I suspect referees are cautious about giving penalty tries because they are a shoo-in seven point awards.

Thinking about it, I'd be happy with penalties staying at 3 points if all scrum offences became freekicks.

I would make it two for a try and one for all kicks - drop goal, penalty, conversion. Aside from empowering the try (and conversion) slightly, this would make for lower, tighter scorelines and make blow-outs appear less embarassing.

How about Scrum penalties kicked to touch unless within 10m of try line & defending penalty its an immediate penalty try.

More free-kicks than penalties, then? Yeah, I'd go for that.