Conversions are so 2018.
The annual South Island co-educational tournament staged near Christchurch earlier this month trialled a couple of extra trylines.
There were the two you are familiar with plus an additional blue tryline at each end.
It was 2m further back and, if you grounded the ball over it, you got seven points rather than five. It was worth the extra effort because regular conversions were not allowed.
The innovation proved popular, according to tournament organiser Geoff Simons. He came up with the idea with the aim of speeding up the game by cutting out the time wasted lining up a conversion and running the kicking tees on and off the field.
Simons said there were more than 50 40-minute games played by 23 teams. Most of the tries scored were ''converted'' in the new way and ''not one complaint from anyone at the ground was received'' he said.
''It is not such a radical proposal when you consider World Rugby has eliminated the need for a conversion when a penalty try is scored.
''As expected there was more time with the ball in play and less hold-ups after each try.
''On at least one occasion a player missed a five-point try by going too far to gain the conversion points.
''And someone did run over the dead ball line. That probably happens at every tournament but there are two lines now and they are still going over and one of them was blue.''
The only people really feeling hard done by were the goal-kickers, Simons said.
''You'd say to people, 'What if this was normal rugby would you get rid of the blue line and have a conversion?' and they wouldn't do it.
''We'll certainly try this again next year.''
Simons would be curious to see how the innovation would play out at a more senior level.
