The World Series Rugby league is trying to bring a new type of rule to the sport of rugby. Yes, sometimes there are rules that need to be changed to make the sport better. I might be new to the sport, but there are a lot of things I love and want to be kept as there are others I don’t like and I hope would change. However, when it comes to scoring, what WSR is trying to introduce is not only stupid, but it could hurt rugby.
If you are unaware what that might be, it is the introduction of the power try to the sport. In an ESPN article, this is what a power try would be:
“A team will have the opportunity to score nine points, providing the conversion is also successful, when a try is scored as result of play being initiated within a team’s own 22. If a penalty is awarded or possession swaps, the power try is no more.”
The idea is to supposedly make rugby “more entertaining that could generate more interest than the players themselves, particularly a nine-point ‘power try’. Nine points?! That’s ridiculous! Scoring five off a try and then two more on extra point opportunities is already enough, but a nine-point “power-try” is absolutely ridiculous. I’m all for making the sport more fun, but this isn’t exactly the best idea. There is also the idea that a side can make 12 substitutions instead of the regular eight that occurs, which is another bad idea as that takes away the splendors of the sport. There was one idea that I had to agree with is that scrums have to be completed within one minute once the mark is set as sometimes it’s very boring to watch the scrum try to be completed over and over again.
Rugby is truly a special sport to watch as an American it combines both American football and soccer together and it honestly looks like the most rigorous sport to play as players are consistently running and tackling one another as you must have a lot of stamina to play the sport. It truly is remarkable, but admittedly it is not perfect. That being said, don’t change the sport so much that it’s unrecognizable. In my book a try is a try and trying to change how scoring points works is just ridiculous. Yes I am all for making the sport more entertaining, but that suggestion is not a good idea. Plus it makes things more complicated in a sport that is pretty simple to understand. Rugby is trying to gain more popularity world wide, especially here in my home country of the United States, so when you add new concepts like that to your sport when you are trying to become more popular, you’re only going to confuse people more and complicate it more for people trying to understand the sport.
If they want to implement this in a lesser known competition, then go ahead. That being said, I don’t want this to be implemented in rugby as a whole. I get this is a trial, but I don’t like the idea of this. Not only is it a complicated concept, I find it to be stupid. Let’s hope World Rugby realizes that this is not a good idea.
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