Mindful of rugby’s collapsing support a couple of years back; the Rugby authorities finally addressed the issue, namely too many petty rules resulting in games being constantly interrupted by the bloody referee blowing his whistle.
This was borne out by a NZ Herald sports reporter early this century who armed with a stop-watch reported that with a provincial match he’d been watching, and over the 80 minutes duration, a total of a mere 12 minutes of play actually occurred.
The reforms have made a massive difference and rugby is now a worthwhile spectacle. BUT, with one exception.
That is the bloody scrums which waste so much time and allow a whistle-happy referee license to take centre-stage.
So therein lies the last necessary reform to make rugby a great spectacle, namely get rid of the scrums.
Currently a minor infringement such as a knock-on sees a scrum set and 5 or more minutes wasted. The non-infringement side put the ball in and invariably recover it.
So instead of all of that palaver, just award a free kick.
Apart from the spectator benefit this would have the added advantage of making rugby, as it once was, a game for slim athletic types rather than as currently, the domain of massive giants who would have difficultly keeping up with the non-stop action.