Adam_Harrison9 wrote:

It's got to be the one where an attacking player can just chuck the ball straight into a man committed to a tackle and it's given as a repeat set or possession back to the attacking team?! I can't believe defenders are getting pinged for good aggressive ddefence and attackers are being penalised for panic passes that are never on? Anyone else get as frustrated as me at the way these are refereed?

New ball steal rule top of my hit list.

In total agreement with you Wollo,the ball stealing rule stinks.It's totally negative and stifles attacking play, and rewards devious skulduggery.

A lot of hoo ha about this rule a couple of seasons ago and I thought popular opinion might bring about a rethink with the powers that be, but alas, no. A terrible rule that promotes sneaky gamesmanship. With a bit of luck we may well have an amendment to the current "stealing the ball" rule.

There was a time when the object of Rugby League rule changes was to promote and improve the skills of the game. It appears now that rule changes are there to promote "cheating". Personally I still think that one of the worst rule changes was to get rid of proper competitive scrums, but this subject has been well discussed many times previously.

Think there is a few for me dont get a sport than can change rules evrey season

The most stupid rule for me involves player welfare.

In jumping to catch a ball kicked high into the air the catching player cannot be tackled until his feet touch the ground. Very sensible rule. What is the rule,however, if the the ball is kicked and bounces high into the air and a player leaps to catch it? Under existing rules he can be tackled as hard as possible while still in the air with welfare of the player apparently out of the window. Happened tonight in the Saints v Hull game.

The one that annoys me the most is that a certain club not far from here are allowed to pass forwards, well the rest of us are prohibited from doing so.

Adam_Harrison9 wrote:

It's got to be the one where an attacking player can just chuck the ball straight into a man committed to a tackle and it's given as a repeat set or possession back to the attacking team?! I can't believe defenders are getting pinged for good aggressive ddefence and attackers are being penalised for panic passes that are never on? Anyone else get as frustrated as me at the way these are refereed?

I'm not quite sure which rule you mean. Do you mean the knock-on rule, when it hits a player in the line of the pass?

I think the problem is that the ref has no choice, as defenders out wide deliberately tackle with their outside arm out held out, so that they either tackle or they stop the ball getting past them. It's the defence deliberately shutting down an overlap by stopping the ball. Literally, ball and all. If the defender was going only for the tackle, the ball wouldn't hit them. Hitting the ball is part of the technique.

As for the jumping after the bounce, again there is no choice. If the ball bounces, the catching player knows he'll get no protection if he jumps so he shouldn't jump. If you allowed a penalty there, you'd get players catching every bouncing ball with a little leap, knowing they couldn't be touched, because how do you police the height of the bounce? They'd get an unrestricted catch and the game would become a farce of players doing little leaps for eighty minutes.

Think I'm in agreement on the ball steal though. We don't players playing with the ball tucked into their chests. It stifles creativity. The game should be about running and tackling. Leave scrabbling in the tackle to the kick and clap.

charlie wrote:

The one that annoys me the most is that a certain club not far from here are allowed to pass forwards, well the rest of us are prohibited from doing so.

Now which club could you possibly mean, charlie???