There are not less total stoppages. There are less stoppages with the clock running.
3 years worth of fiddling has given us 1 minute of extra "ball in play" and 8 more play the balls per game, with several more minutes of dead time (mostly the video ref doing something - but also other "stop the clock" situations like last 5 minutes, HIA, etc.).
Total game duration went down in 2019 when they reduced the scrum and drop-out clocks. It stayed fairly consistent in 2020 and 2021, but 2022 was above 2019. 6-again rule changed nothing.
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Not true at all. Combining 1, 6, 7 and 9 they are not getting significantly more touches than they were before the rule changes. One more minute of game time and 8 more ptb's doesn't change much.
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The biggest influence the 6-again has had is have LESS passes per game and a lot MORE one pass hit ups.
Depends on how you want to play I guess. I love a ball-playing lock, but not everyone plays that way, and there is nothing to show that locks are doing any more passing than before.
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Throwing more passes certainly wasn't a league-wide trend in 2020 and 2021 - though I haven't seen anything for this from 2022. The biggest measurable influence of the set restart rule was decreasing the amount of passes thrown in games AND increasing the amount of 1-pass hit ups. Any extra ball in play time is pretty much just a guarantee that you will see more hit ups.
Ratio of pass-to-run.
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Percentage of plays which were one-pass runs.
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