Australian Rugby League Commission chairman Peter V’landys has defended his six-again law and shut down any suggestion it should be dumped from the rulebook.
V’landys was the mastermind behind the new ruling in 2020, as well as the decision to return the NRL to a one-referee system rather than two.
At first the six-again law – which allows a referee to restart a set count rather than blow a penalty, theoretically reducing the number of stoppages in a game – was lauded as a revolutionary introduction to the league which had become riddled with slow play.
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But NRL coaches and players quickly learned how to manipulate the rule, and it’s divided opinion in rugby league in the last two years.
On Sunday, Canberra was left fuming when the Raiders were denied a penalty after the full-time siren which would have levelled their game against St George Illawarra.
The Dragons led 12-10 when Ben Hunt darted from marker to tackle Tom Starling. Hunt was not square, and fans were confused by the referee calling six-again in that moment, essentially ending the game because the siren had sounded.
NRL’s head of football Graham Annesley on Monday revealed the referee had actually called six-again for the previous play when Hunt flopped on Raiders forward Joe Tapine.
But the NRL thought referee Peter Gough erred in ruling Hunt to be square at marker after that, when he clearly wasn’t.
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“In most cases we want dummy-halves to be able to clear the ball, in most cases when you see that kind of tackle it results in a penalty,” Annesley said.
“In our view that should have been a penalty.
“There is three incidences, the offside, the flop and then there is the move around to tackle the dummy-half.”
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But the incident highlighted the downside of the six-again law.
It is up to a referee’s discretion whether they award a six-again or blow a penalty and stop the game. But if a penalty was blown for one of the incidents in the dying moments on Sunday, the Raiders could have kicked a goal to level the score and have a chance of winning.
In the wake of the Hunt fiasco, the calls to scrap the six-again law have once again fired up.
“You can’t take one isolated incident and change a complete initiative,” V’landys told 9News.
“The six-again has made the game more entertaining and it’s got rid of the wrestle.
“The referee still has the discretion to award a penalty.”
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