I am barely into my 40s and have spells where I think I am turning into a grumpy old man. Evidence of that came in the off-season where I grumbled to all and sundry that I did not like this game as much as I used to.

The opening games of the season have provided a partial cure - and we have had three humdingers to prove that there is not a lot wrong.

I still wouldn't mind suggesting the odd tweak mind, partly based on points arising from those early encounters.

First off is the forward pass rule. Now when I was a kid I was taught that when you pass a rugby ball, the ball must go backwards. These days we see passes that would not be out of place on an American Football pitch.

There were a couple in the Warrington game, one on each side, that went unpunished and yielded tries.

In one of them, the ball actually left Keiron Cunningham's hands behind the 20 metre line and was collected by Ade Gardner in front of it, so how can that not be forward. And, given the line is straight, how can that not be spotted.

My view is straightforward, if we cannot police such a basic rule as the forward pass, then maybe we should alter it.

I accept it would be messy to whistle every flat ball, particularly as some dummy halves have that flat pass off to perfection, and good exponents would get harshly punished. But the only other alternative is to allow balls that have gone a metre or so forward to be legitimate, providing the recipient runs onto it from a position deeper than the passer.

I actually feel sorry for players who actually get punished now - like Scully's would be try scoring pass to Gardner late in the game at Bradford on Friday.

Another talking point for pedants like me from the Warrington game was Wolves winning a scrum against the feed. I actually cheered and was so pleased the ref didn't order a re-scrum, which happened last time I saw such an occurrence.

In this day and age it seems impossible to lose your own scrum - they are such tame, sanitised affairs and act as a glorified turnover.

Rugby league scrums seem to be just a formula to stop play, slow it down from its frantic pace, and are so predictable in their results that they may as well get rid all together. Let's face it is not as if they are used to take advantage of the space created by taking the biggest 12 players on the park out of play for a few seconds.

Such is the value of possession, few moves are put on from a scrum any more, unless through sheer desperation, I am not serious about getting rid - rather I would just like them to be a little more unpredictable, a real contest. Do you think we could manage that without them reverting to the shambles they became in the late 70s.

Back then scrums were an utter mess - loose arm, foot up, feeding, re-set and set again. It was a grim but somehow compelling spectacle. Open side props like Dave Chisnall had the ability to push, pull and lift off to an art form, hookers like Tony Karalius risked life and limb to sit on the floor of the scrum and the stattos on the sidelines would joyfully tick them off in their programmes.

There was a degree of unpredictability about scrums that I would welcome today.

My last grip is the modern substitution rule. I refuse to say interchange because to me that is where you get off at the bus station to swap coaches.

The current law came in at the start of the 2003 season - and Saints were ill prepared to cope with it with Darren Britt really our only prop of note and Barry Ward doing his best to do ten minute bursts in each half, we had second rowers filling in.

The rules mean that it is now part and parcel of the game that you need two props and a hooker on the bench and reduces players in those positions to 50 minute performers.

Now James Graham's 75 minutes against Bulls was a phenomenal effort - particularly as he was up against props being spelled regularly. That sort of capability should be rewarded instead of punished.

Imagine if, when Ali fought Frazier in the Thriller in Manila in 1975, Smokin' Joe was able to tag George Foreman into the ring for the last couple of rounds?

If we curbed the number of substitutions in a match, the game would level out, players with stamina would prosper. And if fatigue crept in late in the game, that would surely open play up a little more as the small guys run at the tiring heavyweights.