A month into the season and the usual complaints are being tossed around. The moans have once again begun about matches being determined by penalty goals rather than tries, that the scrums are a mess and there are too many dead spots in games.

By Greg Growden

The nervous nellies are also worried that due to the high Super Rugby attrition rate there may not be anyone of sound body and mind left in the southern hemisphere to play at the World Cup in six months.

Thankfully Monday Maul has morale-boosting news. There are relatively simple solutions to these problems, or at least words of encouragement to convince all to keep watching.

A frothy discussion point the past week has been the points structure. After the Brumbies were beaten by the Reds despite scoring four tries to one, concerns that the penalty goal is overvalued were again raised. A better way to approach it is to increase the value of the main pursuit of the game – scoring tries. It’s time for administrators to consider increasing the value of a try from five to six points to make it double a penalty goal. Also, forget about reducing the value of a field goal. Three points is the right amount for something that requires skill under pressure and rewards a team in a good territorial position.

The last time the points system was changed was in July, 1992, when tries were increased from four to five points. Since then the game has changed in many ways, including turning professional, and it is now time for another revision.

The other justifiable gripe is that scrums are getting in the way of a good match, because of the inordinate amount of time it takes for the set-piece to be completed. Scrum resets are a blight on the game, but what has been as disconcerting this season is that referees have turned the ”crouch-touch-pause-engage” routine into a torture test.

It’s now taking up to six or seven seconds for referees to utter those four exasperating words, to the extent it has become ”pause-pause again-pause once more and while we’re at it let’s keep that pause going”. One scrum in the Force-Blues match on Saturday night had to be reset because the two front rows, who were close to nodding off, as they had been motionless for so long, packed against each other before ”engage” was uttered by referee Nathan Pearce.

The solution is to just get on with it. Stop the messing about, and let the two packs do what they’re paid to do. They are there to scrum, not to be statues. And why not stop the clock while all this scrummaging rigmarole is going on?

So much time is wasted watching a referee and 16 forwards strut about getting a scrum organised. Stop the clock when the breakdown in play has occurred, and start it again only when the ball has been thrown into the scrum by the halfback. Voila. Ten minutes has been saved instantly.

And for some whenever the television cameras drift to the sidelines, there are disconcerting signs. Each time there seems to be a key Wallaby centre of screen, watching the action in coat and tie. The list of the sidelined includes Rocky Elsom, David Pocock, Rob Horne, Tatafu Polota-Nau, Wycliff Palu, prompting concerns whether there will be anyone left in September-October.

Well, those in charge in Wallabyland certainly aren’t bothered. As the World Cup is the be-all and end-all of this season, it’s better they’re sidelined now, resting up, rather than in six months. It’s all about timing. As Reds coach Ewen McKenzie explained, this season is not a sprint, it’s a 400m race.

No, make that a 3km steeplechase, and the runners are about to negotiate the first water jump. There’s a long way to go, and undoubtedly more thrills and spills to come.

– Sydney Morning Herald