Subs plan may pay penalty of new ruck rule

The number of interchange may have to be maintained or increased if the NRL scraps penalties for ruck infringements and referees instead re-start the tackle count for the attacking team.

The idea is being seriously looked at after a successful trial in Saturday night's All Stars match and NRL football operations director Nathan McGuirk said it would be considered at the next meeting of the game's competition committee.

If the committee - which also includes NRL referees boss Bill Harrigan, coaches Ricky Stuart, Mal Meninga, Daniel Anderson, John Lang, Brian Smith and Ivan Cleary, and former captains Trent Barrett and Andrew Ryan - agree, the rule change is likely be trialled further later in the season.

''I don't know if we would do it in the NRL competition but we have always got the Toyota Cup that we can trial these sorts of things [in],'' McGuirk said.

''There was clearly some positive feedback from the players and coaches in the All Stars game, which will probably lead to some further discussion down the track.''

NRL All Stars coach Wayne Bennett and captain Benji Marshall were strong advocates of the rule change and Harrigan also believed it warranted a further look.

''That rule and the 20/50 kick could certainly be introduced into the NRL if we iron out the little problems that may go with it and everyone accepted that they would enhance the game,'' he said.

The main impact would be on the fitness of the players, as replacing penalties with extra tackles significantly reduces the number of stoppages in a match.

Harrigan said only five penalties were awarded on Saturday night, and the intensity and pace of the match exceeded a regular NRL club game.

As a result, plans to reduce the number of interchanges a team is allowed from 10 per match would have to be scrapped.

''You may have to keep the interchange at what it is and when you start talking about the number of interchanges you start talking about the way the game is played each week, the type of players coaches use and that effects salary caps and all of those things, so it is a big issue,'' Harrigan said. Bennett said the new penalty rule had cleaned up the ruck.