How can rugby have the same ball-in-play time as football?

Firstly, let’s see how much more ball in play time rugby needs to find. In the 2015 Rugby World Cup the ball in play time was 35.12 minutes and in the Bundesliga in 2017, the league I could find the most accurate data for, the total was 56.05 minutes. So rugby needs to find 20 minutes, how do we do that?

The first things to look at are penalty kicks, conversions, and scrums. In the 2015 RWC the average number of penalty kicks were 4.4, conversions were 6.8, and scrums were 13. We already know that kicks take 90 seconds, sometimes longer but very rarely shorter. By just stopping the clock when penalty kicks and conversions are taking place you will add 16.48 minutes to the ball in play time. By just stopping the clock for every kick at goal we have almost reached our target.

The scrums take a little less than a minute per scrum. Averaging out around 50 seconds per event. If we stopped the clock until the ball was played from the back of the scrum or a penalty was awarded then we could save 10.50 minutes. If we put those two things together than we can add 27.38 minutes to the ball in play time equaling 62.50 minutes, easily enough to beat the Bundesliga.

That might seem like an immediate improvement that we should send off to World Rugby. Anyone with a ticket to the Rugby World Cup will see almost twice the rugby they would see previously. However, it’s important to think what else this will mean and why it may not be such a good idea. In the 2015 World Cup the average number of rucks and mauls was 178, that is about a 20% increase from the 2003 World Cup. That means more contact and more tackles. Adding 27.38 minutes to the existing ball in play time would be a 78% increase, let’s call it 80% for ease. That is another 142 rucks and mauls per game, a total of 320. We already have players retiring early due to concussion or injuries caused by the constant battering they are taking.

How easy is it to give rugby the same ball in play time as football? Very easy, but that doesn’t mean we should be doing it.