What had happened to this once great game?
It doesn't even resemble Rugby League anymore.
They are obsessed with making the game "faster" and in the process, they are making the game as boring as dust!
I have said this before but it bears repeating,
The rot set in when they scraped contested scrums, the excuse was safety and it slowed the game down but the real reason was that Channel 9 worked out they could put in 2-3 more minutes of advertising into their broadcast. (I worked in advertising at the time)
There was also a time when there was a place on the field for every shape and size, from the skinny little whippet to the big boofy guy. Now the game is best suited to players who are big, fast, and athletic, like Sonny Bill etc, this is bad for the development of the game at the grassroots level in the long run as kids who are keen and want to progress to higher levels but just don't have the athletic build and stamina required to complete satisfactorily will fall by the wayside.
Now only Rugby Union can cater to all shapes and sizes from U6 mini through to senior grade and this has a lot of appeal for kids left behind by Soccer and Ausy rules and soon now unfortunately, league