MENTOR BACKING KICK-OFF

Robinson against change

Trent Robinson has warned the NRL to not make any kneejerk reactions about kick-offs in the wake of the NFL changing its rules, with the Roosters coach fearing the sport could be “unrecognisable” if it gets rid of its unique “statement plays”.

The NFL announced sweeping changes last week to make kick-offs safer by limiting highimpact collisions.

The NRL brought in new incentives for teams to go short from restarts in the off-season, but there have already been several head clashes from brutal returns off long kick-offs this season that have led to calls for even greater changes.

But Robinson isn’t sure that is the solution.

“There are certain points in games that set the tone for how a game is going to be played, and not many one-off plays can do that,” he said.

“Kick-offs have in our past, so I’m reluctant to lose the brutality that can come from a kick-off and the statement that can be made.

“Because of the brutality is why we’re discussing it. There are injuries that come out of that, and that’s why the NFL changed it.

“I’m a bit on the fence on what we should do there. We don’t want to take out of our game the statement plays.”

Concussion has emerged as one of the most important issues in world sport, and few teams across the country have taken it as seriously as the Roosters, who have always taken a cautious approach to protect their players. It is why Robinson doesn’t want the NRL to bring in wholesale changes that would ruin some of the best parts of the game.

“I think some sports have taken it too far,” he said.

“We are a contact sport, so we’re not going to go away from being a contact sport. People come and watch because they want to watch things that they won’t do themselves, or they like to see the extreme events that happen in physical contact.

“As far as team sports go, I feel like we’re the highest in the world when it comes to contact team sports, and that makes us attractive.

“How do we hold the essence of our sport and the uniqueness of it and also protect our players? I think we’ve got to keep heading down that path but not make game-changing decisions that other sports have made that make it unrecognisable to the contact sports.”

Meanwhile, Robinson says the key to luring more American stars to rugby league is ensuring they have a base in the sport, rather than hoping their athletic ability can translate to the NRL or NRLW.

The Roosters announced on Wednesday that they had signed sevens star Liz Tafuna to their NRLW squad after she impressed at the combine in Las Vegas earlier in the year, with scouts set to target more players in the years to come.

“It’s a really hard one because it takes a long time to learn any sport,” Robinson said. “There needs to be a background in rugby or rugby league.”