I mean if the player in possession is deemed by the referee as trying to milk a penalty then the referee can "up" the amount of tackles completed for the attacking team. For example instead of it being tackle two the ref could increase it to the 3rd tackle because the attacking player was trying to get an unfair advantage, if this happened on the 5th tackle (as most do) then the referee could instruct the player to hand over the ball. Of course this is open to interpretation by the referee but then again so are a lot of the penalties that are given.

Yes, we agree, hatty, just wording; your "increase to the 3rd" is my "decrease the remaining tackles".

There would be no end of confusion if we were both reffing

Get with the programme: only one ref these days!

Having now seen it in action, I'm not at all sure this rule would go down well over here, where many of us don't trust our referees. Yesterday's match was very fast indeed as a result, but the ref continually called six more without the viewers getting any kind of angle on what had happened, which put Brisbane massively under the cosh (though the Eels were by far the better team anyway). Looks like it could be massively open to abuse by a bent ref, but then, as someone else said, so is the ordinary penalty system, as we see every week.

The big issue for me has been having hardly any clue watching on tv that 6 more has been called. They could really do with coming up with some sort of graphic on the screen to highlight it. There’s times you may not quite hear the ref or if it was a longer term thing and it was brought in here, there may be times when you’re watching in pubs (remember them) with no sound and you’d have no clue as to why teams were going up to 7,8, 9+ tackles.

There's about three or four high pitched beeps sounded when the "reset" is called. If you've recorded the games have a listen.

Hadn’t noticed that, will give it a listen. Watched the game yesterday and a bit of one this morning but must’ve been half asleep.

Great to have some rugby league to watch anyway.

The score in the top left flashed it up too

I thought it worked really well tbh

Really need start paying attention

Will keep a closer eye on it tomorrow during the Canberra game.

The more tackles being allowed, the more we are heading back to the old days of unlimited tackes.

Makes you wonder if that is the intention as when we last had unlimited tackes, we had some great rugby and bigger crowds.

But not many now will remember those great days!

you get 6 tackles from a penalty anyway, it just stops the restart and speeds the game up.....

My intial thoughts after 2 full rounds is that it has definitely kept the ball in play longer and made the game quicker. Just wonder how long it will be before teams start giving away 'strategic' (ie when they're goosed) penalities like ball stealing where they have to blow a penalty to give themselves time to reset. It is encouraging the quicker smaller players to run more in the middle at tiring props. Just worry that that might be an unintended consequence

Warriors coach Kearny has called out teams exploiting the rule by tactically lying on early in the tackle count. Normally you would get a 30m boost up field. and a fresh set vs 1 extra tackle, where you'll get maybe a 10m gain if you're lucky against a fully set defence.

At the risk of it becoming ever more complex, 1st tackle infringments should maybe be a penalty.

Overall though, the rule has made NRL fantastic to watch. I find it less frustrating than a penalty when your team gets done for it, and yet very satisfying when you get one your way.

The warriors tend to have received penalties on tackle 1 and have given them away on tackle 4/5.

Has the constant changing of rules resulted in making the game more attractive to the extent that it has resulted in large increases of crowd support, especially younger supporters?

The answer is NO!

i said this last week, the warriors (panthers?) game last week was the first one i'd sat down and watched properly, second half in consecutive sets they got 6 more early in the count in their own half, they were begging for a penalty to get them up the field

Is there any sport in the world that has? The trend for many years now has been for people to watch on TV (as they are so well catered for) rather than attend live sport.

Premiership Football with the building of larger stadiums or increasing the capacities of the present one.

...is the exception that proves the rule. Elite level football remains both rich and popular.

I hope the tweak the rule if they introduce it. If they restart the set on the first then they should either give the attacking team another 10m or let them kick for touch.

Why not just give the penalty and let the attacking team either kick for touch or kick for goal OR let them take a quick tap to keep it going. At present refs will not allow a quick tap. They always stop play while the defensive line re sets.

As you say yourself, you don't get the continuity of play with a so-called quick tap, because so often the refs don't allow it. Six more gives that continuity.

Also, how many times do you see a ref blow up for a pen when actually allowing play to continue would probably result in a try? Winger intercepts a pass and sprints from his own line. Is hauled down just short by the opposing full-back, who hangs on for dear life, but he eventually plays it. Under the old system, the ref blows a pen (and maybe yellow card), defence has time to reset. Six again and they probably score anyway. Ref can go back and issue a yellow later if need be.