Serious question for our rules / strategy experts as a way to combat the momentum of these ridiculous 6 agains. Might seem silly but hear me out.
In circumstances where you concede a 6 again and the opponent gets a quick PTB and the defensive line is staggered and backpedaling and suddenly you're defensively exposed, what if you just deliberately shut the ball down to avoid it. What's going to happen? 6 again from the 0th tackle? Makes no difference, they won't call a penalty because it's in the 6-again area. Worst case you give the opponent a scrum, but I'd rather defend a scrum play with a set defensive line than have our middles scrambling.
Example:
Cleary goes into a tackle and does his 'play the ball the moment a hand is laid on me before the ref has called held' thing and Penrith get a quick PTB. our defence is retreating as Edwards runs from dummy half, he makes good metres but is just caught and flops around on the ground appealing for a 6-again and of course gets it. It's 0th tackle. What if, instead of just allowing Penrith to continue rolling and taking advantage of the momentum and retreating defensive line, the marker just jumps offside on purpose and lays on top of the ball in the PTB? Game has to stop, defensive line gets to reset and rest. What happens? Ref calls 6 again? It's already 0th tackle, who cares? Ref calls full penalty? I don't think the rules allow for that anymore. Ref calls scrum to Penrith? Still better than allowing play to continue.
I honestly have no idea what would happen if you deliberately forced play to stop in these scenarios and arrested the momentum of the team that received 6 again. Even if the ref does call a full arm penalty - that's just what the game used to be... Haven't you then essentially nullified the opponent's ability to take advantage of the 6 again?
This is exactly what teams are MEANT to do.
It happens in a lot of sports and is called a tactical penalty... and it became mainstream in NRL when rorters teams in the 2010's were the most penalised team in the comp, but also had the best defence in the comp.
The media couldn't figure it out until they realised rorters were happy to defend their line forever knowing they wouldn't concede a try unless it was through a quick ptb.
The intent in NRL is to recognise that you've already lost the ruck and just hold down forever until the defence is set.
In your scenario you risk a trigger happy ref that might bin someone for back to back six agains (this was a thing a couple years ago)... so in this instance the defence has completely failed... not only did they lose the ruck, but they then concede a six again and also concede a quick ptb.
In reality it should be damn near impossible to concede a quick ptb AND a six again.
What are you even infringing if they were still able to get a quick ptb.
It's that aspect of six agains that are the most harmful.
The defenders may have recognised they lost the ruck, but also recognised it was late in the count so let's concede the quick ptb, but we'll be getting the ball back.
If the ref is then punishing them for conceding a quick ptb, then the attacking team is getting double the benefit.
If refs arent capable of recognising when a team is deliberately slowing down via a tactical penalty or succumbing to a quick ptb, then they shouldnt be reffing... OR get a second ref in there to watch the ****ing ruck!!
