Soccor has fewer than 20 rules. Rugby league, not many more. Rugby union - the law book runs to about 150 pages.
Many of those pages deal with the contest for possession.
Games such as league and American football do not have a clear contest for possession - once players are tackled the contest is over and teams re-set.
But in union, the contest for possession is fierce.
However, that contest has brought allegations of cheating and claims that referees are taking over the game, producing a frustrating game to watch.
Coupled with a dreary Rugby World Cup final, where penalties dominated and no tries were scored, the IRB put more emphasis on the trial of new experimental law variations (Elvs).
Rugby experts, such as former Wallabies coach Rod McQueen and former South African coach Ian McIntosh, had earlier come up with law changes which it was hoped would produce entertaining rugby with more tries. .
The simple notion was that with fewer penalties and more free kicks, teams would run with the ball and the game would have more attack.
But as the domestic season comes to its climax, with the finals of the Air New Zealand Cup to be played next month, memorable games over the past couple of months have been few and far between.
Poor games of rugby have always happened, and will in the future, but the new rules do not appear to have delivered on what they promised"There is a lot of aimless running and aimless kicking.
There is not a lot of structure to a lot of the play," Wellington coach Jamie Joseph said.
Joseph, whose side sits on top of the table, said in some of the games Wellington has played, the number of lineouts during the game has been in single figures.
"It is harder to coach. You used to get a good scrum and would do stuff off that. But now a lot of what you do is from broken play. The game is a lot more erratic."
How to use free kicks usually depended on who was the opponent and the game situation, Joseph said.
But he was a traditionalist who liked to attack off the scrum.
Joseph said games used to be won by the team which had the most possession and territory and which could grind its opponent down.
But with the new rules, that no longer applied.
"I think we had something like 30% possession against Counties yet we put 60 points on them."
Wellington's game against Southland, which it won 26-7, was another game where Wellington had little possession, but still managed to get home.
Joseph said that with some large forwards in his side, he wanted some structure in the game, as they would get tired quickly if every free kick was tapped.
The rule allowing the pulling down of mauls was redundant, he said, as teams had learnt how to defend against rolling mauls in the past couple of years.
Australian players also had better kicking skills, through the influence of Aussie Rules, and New Zealand players had to brush up on those, especially in catching the ball from a kick.
Kicking is occurring much more under the new rules, though the ball is in play more.
When Otago played Northland earlier this season, there were 43 kicks in the game, more than one every 2min.
Northland coach Mark Anscombe, whose side has just the one win this season, says kicking has come about from no-one wanting to be caught in their own half, and then conceding free kicks.
"The ball is in play a lot more but a lot of that extra time is taken up with kicking."
Anscombe said referee interpretations at the breakdown were still crucial, as they were before the Elvs.
"There is a lot more movement in the game, but all these rule changes came down to one reason and that was problems at the breakdown. That is where it all stems from."
Those problems continue.
He said when rucking was allowed, there were far fewer problems at the breakdown. But bringing back rucking was unlikely, he admitted.
Otago coach Steve Martin said teams were still adapting to the changes. A lot of the game was about receiving kicks and what to do then.
"If you receive a kick behind your team and the opposition chase is quite strong and all your team is in front of you then there are not many options.
So if there is a wall of defenders in front of you, you put it back down there . . . it can be quite aimless at times."
Martin said it did not make for a great spectacle at times.
Players have to run back quickly.
Certainly players spoken to said they were doing a lot more running in games, but a lot of that running was for little return.
A lot of teams were getting crafty, Martin said. They could slow the ball down to get their defence set or tie it up to get a turnover.
He said twice in Otago's draw with Tasman last week, the side got within a metre of the tryline but was held up and conceded a free kick.
Martin questions whether those sort of decisions reward attacking rugby.
Teams which were strong at the breakdown and had a wide and effective defence were succeeding.
Handling errors were high as teams had to operate under more pressure with rushing defences, which had been set from a breakdown.
Martin wondered what the the ideal body type of a player was under the new rules.
"You look at a team like Bay of Plenty, who have won a few games. They have a lot of sevens players in their side. Maybe that is the way the game is going."
> The new Elvs <
What are they?
• When a player receives the ball outside the 22m line and passes or runs back over the 22m line and then kicks the ball out, the lineout is from where the ball was kicked out.
• A quick throw-in can be straight or go backwards.
• Immediately the tackle occurs there are offside lines, and at a breakdown if the ball is unplayable the side which did not take the ball into the breakdown will receive a free kick.
• The offside line from a scrum is 5m behind the hindmost foot of the scrum, except for halfbacks.
• For all offences other than offside, not entering through the gate, and foul play, the sanction is a free kick.
• Touch judges are now called assistant referees.
