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Play-the-ball clampdown


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I'll give it a month, too hard to police with just one referee.

I remember Mahe Fonua used to roll the ball backwards with his hand whilst both feet remained on terra firma on pretty much every PTB during his previous stint with Hull. Always amazed me that the refs never picked him up on it.

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The adjustment to the rules we most need is that once a tackle is complete , no defender is allowed to change their grip on the tackled player , they must release and not contact the opposition in any way , none of this putting your hand on the players head , no contact at all 

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PNG heeled the ball back on every PTB in the recent game v GB....it looked good and showed discipline. There can't be one rule being applied by all international sides in the world but wilfully ignored by any GB side just because they can't be bothered to follow the laws.

Watching all sorts of international games on YouTube, it appears that a correctly executed PTB is normal in most countries. It shouldn't be asking too much of any player to do it correctly.

When I played a good while ago, everyone used their heel or studs to propel the ball backwards. Just tossing it backwards through the legs isn't rugby league, nor ever has been.

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6 minutes ago, Pigeon Lofter said:

PNG heeled the ball back on every PTB in the recent game v GB....it looked good and showed discipline. There can't be one rule being applied by all international sides in the world but wilfully ignored by any GB side just because they can't be bothered to follow the laws.

Watching all sorts of international games on YouTube, it appears that a correctly executed PTB is normal in most countries. It shouldn't be asking too much of any player to do it correctly.

When I played a good while ago, everyone used their heel or studs to propel the ball backwards. Just tossing it backwards through the legs isn't rugby league, nor ever has been.

Quite. The rollball is touch rugby.

The play-the-ball is the very essence of rugby league and in my view the British game has discredited the sport by tolerating a lackadaisical approach.

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3 minutes ago, Pigeon Lofter said:

...or just putting it in correctly, holding the two pointed ends and rolling it into the tunnel as required rather than casually holding it in one hand like a bowling ball and tossing it towards the back of the scrum.

Why it's got to the stage where referees don't give a monkeys about stuff like this is mystifying and detrimental to the image and integrity of the sport.

If the laws aren't being enforced, then why have them in the first place?

Do you remember what scrums were like 40/50 years ago. They were an appalling mess.

 

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1 minute ago, Padge said:

Do you remember what scrums were like 40/50 years ago. They were an appalling mess.

Yes! A dark and dangerous place where all sorts of atrocities happened.

If the rules state the ball should be held horizontally by the pointed tips and rolled along the ground into the tunnel with both hands then casually hurling it to the back of the scrum with a one handed fling shouldn't be allowed.

That doesn't mean to go back to having the turbulent seething cauldrons that scrums were in the 70s, nobody wants that.

The modern game needs to tidy up on the laws though so it doesn't become a choice whether players and officials obey them or not. 

 

 

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1 hour ago, Big Picture said:

About time too! 

I'd go further and make both packs bind, crouch and then engage just as in RU and then require the ball to be fed into the tunnel as per the rule book, defining the tunnel as between the feet of the opposing hookers.  Any deviation would be an automatic differential penalty, without exception.

I'd also penalize loose forwards disengaging if the ball's at their feet, as in that case it hasn't yet emerged from the scrum.

Watch Union. I dont understand why people want competitive scrums. If you pass forward or knock on, you deserve to give the ball up.

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4 minutes ago, MattSantos said:

Watch Union. I dont understand why people want competitive scrums. If you pass forward or knock on, you deserve to give the ball up.

No thanks, I've never been able to watch more than a few minutes of Union without getting bored.

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1 hour ago, MattSantos said:

Watch Union. I dont understand why people want competitive scrums. If you pass forward or knock on, you deserve to give the ball up.

This right here is why I've never understood competitive scrums or line outs in Union. You've made a mistake then are given an equal opportunity to get the ball back, how is that fair? 

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We definitely need more disputed penalties in rugby league so this is excellent news. I look forward to everyone being delighted with the first month of the season's stop-start football and the first tries being chalked off because the video ref can spot daylight on the play-the-ball after five minutes of looking.

Build a man a fire, and he'll be warm for a day. Set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life. (Terry Pratchett)

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Seems weird that so many are laying the blame here at the door of the RFL/SL/Officials. Players know what they need to do and if they don't it should rightly be penalised. Our game is falsely 'fast' because we don't PTB correctly and then a penalty actually gets given for offside, so we don't get less penalties - we just reward the attacking side more. I agree however this will be very difficult to police and is why one of the biggest mistakes made last year was putting the 2 referees concept 'on hold'. 

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14 minutes ago, hunsletgreenandgold said:

Seems weird that so many are laying the blame here at the door of the RFL/SL/Officials. Players know what they need to do and if they don't it should rightly be penalised. Our game is falsely 'fast' because we don't PTB correctly and then a penalty actually gets given for offside, so we don't get less penalties - we just reward the attacking side more. I agree however this will be very difficult to police and is why one of the biggest mistakes made last year was putting the 2 referees concept 'on hold'. 

You’re a fan of the two referees idea?

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10 hours ago, Pigeon Lofter said:

When I played a good while ago, everyone used their heel or studs to propel the ball backwards. Just tossing it backwards through the legs isn't rugby league, nor ever has been.

At Middle School, right at the back end of the 1980s, in the heart of RU country SW of Birmingham, our northern PE teacher had all the boys doing PTBs perfectly from about the age of 10. "Just in case you ever move north, like...."*

*It got very confusing though as obviously we weren't allowed to do it when playing other schools, but if we didn't do it on a games afternoon then we got a ball thrown at our head.

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