FEATHERSTONE ROVERS and Bradford Bulls went along to their first rugby league fix of 2024 involving their side at the Millennium Stadium on Sunday.
Aside from the stuttering play and heavy ground consistent with a pre-season friendly, supporters will have noticed referee Ben Thaler penalising both sides – in fact five turnovers were given in the first-half – for incorrect play-the-balls.
Though some fans became visibly and verbally frustrated towards the end of the first half, it was good to see Thaler enforcing the new clampdown that the RFL gave as a directive over a month ago as both sides quite clearly learned from their mistakes in the second-half with no ruck infringements.
The RFL, in a statement late last year, said: “Players, coaches and match officials have agreed to see greater sanction for flops, hands on the ball-by-ball carriers and to ensure that ball carriers regain their feet on the mark and make a genuine attempt to play the ball with the foot.
“Ahead of the season work will take place to improve these areas and in matches, match officials will be expected to sanction these infringements more firmly.”
Instead of players consistently playing the ball through their own legs and making a mess of the ruck, the change was remarkable already – and it is only going to get better as players adapt their games to the new ruling.
Featherstone’s trialist Jack Arnold was so frustrated with himself for causing a turnover in the first-half from an incorrect play-the-ball that he made a conscious effort for the rest of the game to put the ball down with two hands and ensure that his foot made contact with the ball.
Everyone knows that the ruck was getting out of hand in 2023 with referees often struggling to make decisions due to the scrappiness around the play-the-ball.
In terms of hands in the ruck, there was very little as both Featherstone and Bradford played a relatively clean game in poor conditions – let’s hope it continues!
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