What is the best way to reduce the amount of penalty goals kicked in rugby...?

Make the balls harder to kick...!

In the old days we had heavy leather balls, they were a nightmare. This world cup has seen slightly lighter balls, harder to pass a long distance and harder to kick.

The simplist way would to be clean up rules in scrum and breakdown by making changes to the laws.
Example scrum,player places hand on ground to stabilize himself to avoid a collapse[then immmediately straightens up].
If scrum goes down but the ball has been hooked,allow play to go on rather than reset.
If you want to go back to the old days,standard boots no specials for kickers
No kicking tees a scrape or sand ,Leather balls no plastic coating ,or a differential penalty.Tap /scrum/kick for touch[free kick in this case].

amend the laws that the penalty taker has to sit down in an office chair and the referee spins him around for 60 seconds, then he has to get up, immediately begin his approach and take the kick.

Players could stop cheating!

Personally I would make technical things such as slipped bindings when the scrum is stationary, truck and trailer offences etc a half penalty. So more than a free kick (ie if you kick to touch you get the throw) but not kickable at goal.

Only offences that are either foul play or preventing fair play of the ball (offside in defence, holding on, hands on teh ball, collapsing scrum or maul when in retreat etc) would give full penalties.

If such an offence happens inside your own 22, then the kick shall be in front of the posts and the player automatically sin-binned. For a while we may get down to 10 a side, but players would learn that cheating does not pay.

What is the best way to reduce the amount of penalty goals kicked in rugby...?

Leave James Hook take all the kicks .....

After thi WC I would say they need help to kick them as the % rate was very low indeed

Why the need to reduce them? They've always been part of the game...and always will be....

I dont mind penalties to be honest, they punish a team for cynical play and costs them points.

bedfordwelsh wrote:After thi WC I would say they need help to kick them as the % rate was very low indeed

I think they did make the balls harder to kick prior to the tournament, trying to reduce the amount of kicks at goal. The players were also given a great deal less time practicing with match balls.

Unfortunately it didn't encourage teams to kick at goal less, it just made them miss more.

No changes needed. They are part of the game and fine the way they are.

I think what the penalty offences are need to be reviewed, maybe some penalties are actually free kicks and vice aversa.

Players not cheating and learning to play the ref helps too.

There should be an automatic point go on the board for every penalty awarded irrespective of where it is on the pitch. Teams can then decide whether they want to kick for the extra two points or not.

maestegmafia wrote:Make the balls harder to kick...!

In the old days we had heavy leather balls, they were a nightmare. This world cup has seen slightly lighter balls, harder to pass a long distance and harder to kick.

Get James Hook playing 10

THE problem with the new ball was it was`nt available for kickers to practice with Pre matches that is wrong.THE IRB was so precious about its advertising it was untrue.

emack2 wrote:THE problem with the new ball was it was`nt available for kickers to practice with Pre matches that is wrong.THE IRB was so precious about its advertising it was untrue.

Yes and the players time with the ball was greatly reduced from what is normally allocated

Make the posts narrower.

Make them only worth 2 points

making the posts narrower or awarding only 2 points for a penalty would only lead to defensive teamss giving away even more penalties.

I like the idea of some of the lesser penalties being made into free kicks, or half penatlies as was mentioned - where you can't kick for goal but you will get the lineout throw in if you go for touch. Things like truck and trail or crossing shouldn't really be full blown penalties IMO.

Don't tell the IRB to do that for God's sake! They will come up with some convoluted laws which require the Ref to apply 'interpretation' and which coaches will use to actually mean more kicks are taken at goal!