3 try gap rule revisited

[Rothoik]

Looking at this rule there are pro's and con's. If the old 4 try BP system had been applied to the French top 14, the only real difference would have been that Bordeaux would have made the play-offs. In the champ, the overall scores would have been closer at the mid-top of the table as many teams have scored 4 trys or more.

It is interesting how teams that have that attacking threat are coming away with no points or no BPs even when they win. There is scant reward in that respect.

The pro-3 try gap fans might point to the fact that it rewards both attack and defence in equal measure. I am still a little on the fence as it seems to overpower the top 2 to 3 teams a little but I understand this perspective. The losing bonus point, really is the measure of defense and attack in that if you defend well you can stop a team pulling away.

The issue for me is that very hard working teams who play some fantastic rugby are ending up empty handed despite scoring 4 tries and as the season progresses these missed points become ever more important. The teams are all in the same boat so to speak and we will see how different the standing would have been had the 4 try system prevailed, I suspect there will be some unfortunate casualties in that respect.

[Rich13]

Suspect I’m in a minority, but I still like the structure. The objective is to win games not to score tries. The laws have been skewed enough over recent years towards the latter imo.

I have no problem with giving a point to a team who got close, as it reasonably fairly reflects outcome versus the target of winning the game & 7 points is a score so there’s logic that the line is drawn there. The result could been different but for the bounce of the ball etc…

Likewise Roth only getting 4 points from narrow victories over Cov & Bedford versus Worcester getting 5 for sticking 70 on us without much reply seems eminently fair.

Whether +3 tries is the right measure for the bonus I’m less sure, but if the objective is to reward a comfortable win and try scoring prowess with an extra point then it’s a decent starting point.

[Rothoik]

Its a conudrum but, it is workable and so far the outcome to me is interesting but by no means a travesty of justice or any such like. Being able to defend is just as important as being able to attack. The objective of any team is primarily to win. the goals of the law makers and rugby structure developers is to make the game safe and attractive, so it will be interesting how it eventually pans out. From what I have seen it has had no effect on the matchplay but perhaps is having an effect on the standings, I havent put the effort in to do a Champ table comparison, might be worth a punt on Chat GPT

[Fatbear]

So far it looks like this season more penalties are being kicked for points rather than to the corner. Getting four tries is now less important than extending a lead to beyond a converted try.

[Bluesman]

I am fully in favour of the rule change. In today’s rugby climate, scoring 4 tries is not difficult and I don’t think a team should be rewarded for losing heavily but being able to score 4 tries after the opposition has taken their foot off the gas, especially as some of them are likely to have come from the vastly overpowered rolling maul. I don’t know how you can justify a team losing 55-28 getting a point in a losing cause but a team losing 28-20 not.

It keeps more games interesting until the final play. Take Bedford’s game against Nottingham last weekend, where the game was sewn up 10-15 mins before the final whistle. Bedford still had to push for a try up until the very last few minutes and then defend to obtain/retain a bonus point. This phase of play would’ve otherwise been relatively meaningless with the 4 tries already sewn up.

I’m not sure I agree that the new rules encourage more kicking for goal; quite the opposite. You now have scenarios where teams who are strong favourites to win are having to chase more tries to ensure they stay more than 3 tries ahead. Previously, once they’d scored 4 tries all they had to do was secure the win and therefore would have no reason to chase more tries with easy 3 points on offer. It now leads to some very interesting dilemmas on whether to try and secure the win or chase the bonus point. I don’t have the stats but from what the commentators have said they seem to think teams are taking the 3 less often and going for the corner more. This may be partly due to the rules but also, as mentioned, it is far too easy to score from rolling mauls with the current rules/officiating so teams often turn down 3 with the expectation they will score more than 50% of the time from the resulting series of mauls.

[Rothman2]

Looking at this rule there are pro's and con's. If the old 4 try BP system had been applied to the French top 14, the only real difference would have been that Bordeaux would have made the play-offs. In the champ, the overall scores would have been closer at the mid-top of the table as many teams have scored 4 trys or more.

It is interesting how teams that have that attacking threat are coming away with no points or no BPs even when they win. There is scant reward in that respect.

The pro-3 try gap fans might point to the fact that it rewards both attack and defence in equal measure. I am still a little on the fence as it seems to overpower the top 2 to 3 teams a little but I understand this perspective. The losing bonus point, really is the measure of defense and attack in that if you defend well you can stop a team pulling away.

The issue for me is that very hard working teams who play some fantastic rugby are ending up empty handed despite scoring 4 tries and as the season progresses these missed points become ever more important. The teams are all in the same boat so to speak and we will see how different the standing would have been had the 4 try system prevailed, I suspect there will be some unfortunate casualties in that respect.

Rothoik

I thought about what you said so I have compiled some information on leaguerugby.co.uk which may be of interest to all Champ followers on here.

I couldn’t post it on here as I couldn’t get the columns in line.

I hope this is of use and provokes further debate.

Link:
https://www.leaguerugby.co.uk/topic2126 ... tml#532176

[Knightsboy]

Hi Rothman, great work, I've posted what I think could be an error, but I'm probably wrong.

[Rothman2]

Hi Rothman, great work, I've posted what I think could be an error, but I'm probably wrong.

Thanks for taking the time to point it out KB. Amended accordingly & hope you are ok.