Teams are now blatantly rorting the six-again rules, NSW State of Origin coach Brad Fittler says.
After Queensland gave away a mountain of six-agains in Origin III, as a deliberate defensive tactic to shut down the Blues, the Roosters also clearly gave away set restarts towards the end of Saturday’s win over the Cowboys.
“This is three six-agains with the game on the line and the Cowboys surging home,” rugby league great Peter Sterling said on The Sunday Footy Show.
“That’s two within the same tackle and then there’s a third one as well.”
Fittler interjected: “We had the same in Origin, we had three on one tackle and we didn’t make five metres. It was ridiculous.”
Sterling continued: “How fortunate for the Roosters not to have a sin-bin there. If you’re talking repeated infringements, there was three in one tackle!”
Fittler added: “Totally agree. Sides now realise, especially on early tackles, you know what, they’re giving up a tackle.
“We most probably got to have a look at that rule, I believe, with the 10 metres especially; maybe switching that back to penalties, because teams are just taking the piss.”
Sterling said that the Roosters were deserved winners but branded “crucial” the period where they conceded repeated six-again infringements.
“These six-agains are such a big part of the game now and if we’re fair dinkum about them, if you’re giving them away like that … that’s why the rule was brought in, for that not to happen,” Sterling said.
The Roosters recorded four ruck infringements and four inside the 10 calls against them, according to NRL stats, as they beat the Cowboys 34-18.
While conceding six-agains has proved fatal for teams this season, clever coaches have clearly identified methods of using them judiciously in defence to blunt the opposition’s attacking opportunities; either standing blatantly off-side or holding up the ruck to force slow play-the-balls.
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