I'm very close to finding rugby union a better game to watch and i NEVER thought that possible. Its horrible to see the demise of the greatest game....which at the minute it's anything but.

Agree with a lot of this.

I would like to see

1. Contested scrums to encourage forwards to pack properly.
2. Reduced interchanges.
3. Some way of reducing the number of kick / catch / tries - they are boring.

I also agree with most of what has been said in previous posts, however, even though i take your point re the scrums don't think i want to see contested scrums back, we will probably have the game stopping and starting, scrum wheeling, collapsing, striking to early etc, i would get rid of scrums altogether really embarrassing.

I would also keep the water carriers/ trainers off the pitch, some are on more than the players.

Problem with contesting scrums is the players get naughty. Back in the day we rarely saw a scrum pack and ball in and out in one motion....it was often repack and even repack again, then eventually a penalty often given the way of the attacking team.
Scrums slowed the game down.
They are nothing more than a soft penalty. They still remain because no one has come up with a good enough idea of how to restart the game without one yet.

Another idea to reduce the reliance on the kick down field is to modify the "down town" rule. The change could be that the kicking side players are only onside if they are behind the kicker at the time it is kicked. This will give the receiving player more time and space, instead of facing 5 players 10 yards away from them when they collect the ball.

I wouldn't bring back contested scrums since I can remember when we had them and they were a total mess and a lottery to referee. Having 12 players struggling for possession and trying umpteen underhand ways to do it left refs able to take their pick what to penalise.

I do agree that the game has become dull because there's no battle for possession.

I'd reduce the 10metres. You get so much wrestling, flopping and holding down because players need time to get back 10m. Go back to 5m and get players to release immediately. I'd bring back being able to rake the ball back at the PTB and make it compulsory to play the ball with the foot. Back in the late 80s and early 90s this was all enforced without issue.

Agreed, but you only have to pop onto the wigan site to see that even their fans are citing playing style and grind as a reason the fans are not bothering as much anymore and why they were down on numbers for the final at the weekend.

Even my own team (Leeds), sitting second in the table and i struggle to think of many games i have been truly entertained this year and enthusiasm and excitement for matches is dwindling by the year. As others have said, only Cas games are really worth spending time watching these days, I watch far more NRL than i do SL. I was brought up watching the likes of Hanley, Schoey, Innes, Iro, Tait etc... in the early 90's putting on a regular show. We didn't always win... we won sod all infact during the era, but i still look back on that time with fondness with free flowing RL at it's purest. Far better the turgid, generic arm wrestle we get across the league these days.

Ok, so were all agreed that the present game is awful. The question now is what can WE do to change it?

Realistically WE can't do anything. If things continue as they are attendances will fall. However there are still a lot of supporters that don't know much different to what is served up now and will continue to go.

I hope that Cas win the GF and other coaches sit up and take notice. Perhaps then you may get some other clubs emulating their approach in the same way everyone copied the horribly cynical and negative way that Maguire brought to Wigan.

We can debate rule changes to the cows come home but I still think the big issue is the 10m rule. Teams are too far apart and it's made the ruck the be all and end all to the detriment of the game as a whole.

Cas are showing other sides how the game needs to be played at present - I hope they win the Grand Final so that other clubs can see this is the way forward for the games style, rather than adopting the 'grind' or in our case trying to win via a scootathon mentality - Everyone wants to win, but most importantly, we want to be entertained!!!

It's no surprise that the standard of the game has decreased though, as salaries for SL players have seen real term reductions for well over a decade and during the same period, salaries in the NRL and RU have accelerated massively. We wont be able to attract the Monaghan's, Hodgsons, Kings etc of the modern game if we can't pay them the salary they can achieve elsewhere.

The marquee player allowance could help improve that situation, so far we have Tomkins, Williams & Barba I believe on marquee allowances - we need more of them to increase the quality and profile of the sport.

The RFL can do their bit by trying to attract French and NA teams and so TV deals to the game in the Northern Hemisphere, but Sky need to step up and offer the game what its worth, otherwise they will have a product that will continue to diminish until even viewers in the heartlands aren't interested - It's obviously in Sky's interest to get TV rights for SL for as cheap as possible, but on the other hand TV revenue is the lifeblood of any major sport and they need to come to the party.

I hate to say it but I watched the final on saturday,from the shambles at the "abide with me" to listening to Kear going on constantly about superb Wigan, a very ordinary game with very few moves, an over reliance on kicking for wingers, and quite incomprehensible refereeing decisions. I am seriously thinking about my season ticket for 2018 with fixtures being any time and date over the weekend. This season has been poor . both at club level and super league in general, with the exception of Castleford . . There does seem to be a lot of players who are very fit athletes but lack the basic skills required to be a good rugby player,too many second rows/centre/wingers or . hookers/loose forwords/'scrum halves. All teams need a modicum of utility players,but not a team of bits and pieces with the plan of 5 scoots and a kick. All in all my most disappointing season for many years

Maybe one overhead kick in the opposition 20 per half....but god knows how you'd police that. Cas are by far the best to watch this season but i still find a lot of their play formulaic compared to decades ago. Whatever happened to a cheekky chip over the top or widnes' little beauty where three of them lined up with their backs to play on a penalty and dispersed all pretending to carry the ball? There's no on-field ingenuity anymore.

I thought James Childs was very clear and understandable as the VR. On another note in the current test match the VR speaks over the PA system so that the crowd have an understanding of his view, could this be worth a shot to help explain the decision?

What a league we would have if there were 4 or 5 teams playing in a similar vein to Castleford.

Cas, and us in an earlier version, demonstrate that exciting rugby can be effective rugby. The question is, can it be effective enough to win a GF? I hope for the good of our game that Cas demonstrate that it can!

S Grandad might have hit the nail on the head.
Players of skill is replaced by players if fitness.
Long gone are the days of old...The John Woods and the Kelly Shelfords.

I know where you're coming from but wouldn't that suggest that the part time leagues should provide a more exciting product?

Are the likes of John Woods and Kelly Shelford playing in the part time leagues?

Perhaps they are selling insurance or sumert.

I'm not convinced Kelly Shelford was in the same league as John Woods. Much as I enjoyed watching KS being part time was no excuse for his state of (un)fitness

That is exactly my point though. I don't disagree the Wood was better either.
Both were renowned for not training and one for his social habits.
But my point was that these two guys had thr skill levels that we don't see anymore.
Once the fitness roles took over from pure skill the role changed and instead of the skillful stand off we got athletic forwards playing the role instead...
Sculthorpe Farrell etc.

I didn't know that JW didn't train, KS on the other hand looked like he only had to walk past Greggs to put on a stone...the calories he actually consumed in a liquid form probably didn't help!
It also seems that players in the traditional Stand Off mould are now being played at full back.

Sadly you are correct.

It is all about completion rates, and 'dominating the ruck and the arm wrestle'. Maverick players and plays are out of the window and just not fit for purpose in the modern game.

To reduce the number of tries from kicks in the air, how about incentivising running tries by awarding 5 points and say 3 points for a try where there has been a kick during that particular tackle. I for one am bored with kicks on the last tackle and the eternity taken by the VR deciding if it was/wasn't a try.

Create a new line thats 5m out from the try line, then if the defending side catches a kick (without the ball bouncing) behind said line (in the air or stood on the ground), they get a penalty on the half way line.

Seeing as a lot of kicks are necessary because a team are running out of options would a complete overhaul of the system be in order as so....1. Do away with 6 tackles altogether & have say 10 tackles to allow a team to do more with the ball in hand,2. reduce the ten metres at the ruck to suit something more like Saints,Wigan ,Leeds distances, 3.allow striking by the marker at ptb & 4. encouraging more aggressive defence to get the ball back. 5.disallow kicks intended to turn a team round to getting possession further back than their last tackle play which currently allows an attacking team to punish defensive effort.