www.rugby-league.com/superleague ... oduced-in- Quote new rules for 2017 Scrums All defensive players outside the scrum, other than the scrum halves must retire ten metres or more behind the mark where the scrum is formed and shall remain until the ball has emerged correctly from the scrum. This previously stated that defensive players outside the scrum had to retire five metres or more from the scrum. Goal Line drop out The previous rule of a player being able to straddle the dead ball line or touch in-goal line and be awarded a 20m restart has now changed. Where the ball is stationary in the in-goal area comes into contact with a player in touch, in goal or over the dead ball line, the ball is deemed to have been made dead by that player. The ball must have bounced on the ground either on or over the dead ball line/touch in goal line for a 20m restart to be awarded. 20 metre restarts An additional rule is now included in the 20 metre restart law that the initial tackle affected on the team taking the 20-metre optional restart shall be a zero tackle. 40/20 kick The changes regarding the 40/20 law now clarify where and when the tap kick will be taken. It specifies that the tap kick will be taken 20 metres in from the touchline where the ball first crossed the touchline but no closer than 10 metres from the goal line. Markers Provides clarification on the position of markers once a tackle is complete. '" your opinions on these changes

www.rugby-league.com/superleague ... oduced-in- Quote new rules for 2017 Scrums All defensive players outside the scrum, other than the scrum halves must retire ten metres or more behind the mark where the scrum is formed and shall remain until the ball has emerged correctly from the scrum. This previously stated that defensive players outside the scrum had to retire five metres or more from the scrum. Goal Line drop out The previous rule of a player being able to straddle the dead ball line or touch in-goal line and be awarded a 20m restart has now changed. Where the ball is stationary in the in-goal area comes into contact with a player in touch, in goal or over the dead ball line, the ball is deemed to have been made dead by that player. The ball must have bounced on the ground either on or over the dead ball line/touch in goal line for a 20m restart to be awarded. 20 metre restarts An additional rule is now included in the 20 metre restart law that the initial tackle affected on the team taking the 20-metre optional restart shall be a zero tackle. 40/20 kick The changes regarding the 40/20 law now clarify where and when the tap kick will be taken. It specifies that the tap kick will be taken 20 metres in from the touchline where the ball first crossed the touchline but no closer than 10 metres from the goal line. Markers Provides clarification on the position of markers once a tackle is complete. '" your opinions on these changes

Don't fully understand the goal line drop out one. But absolutely hate the current ruling of putting foot over line to earn restarts, do hope something about that.

have i misread it or have they changed that terrible rule?

That's what I thought, got rid of the straddling the line and making the ball dead which Hardaker was so good at.

I like the 7 tackle set in conjunction with this, punishes aimless kicks to the in goal. Obviously we've followed the NRL in this, but I wish we'd also use their 'shot clock' rule as well.

Whichever set of rules the game are played to, it should be the same around the globe.

Think it's basically returning to how it was when the ball is only deemed dead when it goes out or touches the line. So the end of this rubbish FB can make it dead by having a foot out nonsense.

I would think that only adds another 1-2m as its from the mark not the back of the scrum.

Have they also introduced the tap restart after a successful 40/20 kick instead of a scrum?
I like the change to the dead in goal rule & the introduction of an extra tackle after a kick goes dead in goal.
I wish they'd restate the need to touch the ball with the foot at the play the ball.

Yep - you now take a tap after a 40/20 but no closer than 10m from the goal line.

Even though he's on the rules committee, I'm not sure why we need a picture of Jon Wilkin on our home page? If they want to annoy people they may as well go all out and put a picture of Ryan Atkins on there.

I think we can all agree on this - it's absolute madness that we don't have 1 set of rules across all formats of the game.

These changes do pretty much bring us in line with the NRL.

It would help if the sport was actually played as the rules state, if you look at the actual rules of the game, the play the ball should be totally different:
You are supposed to play it with your foot
All tacklers are supposed to roll away as soon as the tackle is completed (not peel off)
But, you are supposed to wait for the tacklers to clear the rook before you play the ball
You are also tactically allowed to drop the ball and then play it with your foot, which by the laws of the game is not a knock on
I believe that in the English laws of the game, it still talks about only ONE marker, not 2

Need to change the rules or stick to them

Unrelated to these changes, but still a pressing concern in the sport imo:
The video ref should be restricted to balck and white decisions only, as in grounding, touch lines, offsides (even though they have inexplicably being called wrong in the past), knock ons and possibly high tackles if the ref is considering sending someone off.

That means no more 5 minutes spent trying to decide on an obstruction or double movement, its only logical the ref should decide obstruction, as if he doesn't see anyone obstructed, then there probably was no obstruction, regardless of if a player went behind someone (usually about 3 meters away from the defender) or not.

I would have liked to see something done about the "Sinfield" i.e. hoofing the ball over the opponent's dead ball from miles away leaving them with a tap on their 20. I think there should be a maximum distance between where a ball is kicked dead from and the point where play restarts. so for instance if you kick it dead from more than 40 metres out the restart is moved forward a metre for every metre beyond the 40 that it was kicked from. So if you kick dead from 50 metres the restart is on the 30 and so on.

They have. Instead of a tap restart with 6 tackles you get a tap restart with 7 tackles

you reckon that our refs or video refs for that matter would be able to get their head around your proposal?

And would the ref have to take a tape measure with him to measure every metre beyond 40 metres and the video refs taking 10 minutes to decide the exact distance.
Talk about silly suggestions.

Bring out the Chain Gang like in the NFL.

Well they already have to see where 40/20s are kicked from and where kicks cross the touch line so I don't see why not. It doesn't have to be to the inch. Maybe in bands, 40-50 metres out, 50-60 metres out etc. I just think the rules should reward skill not just having a huge boot.

The biggest change I'd like to see is how the ruck is policed. I'd get rid of the 'dominant tackle' interpretation and simply have a set time that the ruck is allowed to last - no advantage for dominant tackles, no advantage for finding your front in attack - just a consistent time for each tackle before held is called, and once the ref calls held, all defenders to release and clear the ruck area immediately.
For me, that's the way we minimise the importance of 'wrestle' and get back to the game being a contest of attacking rugby vs brutal defence, not a matter of who is the best at controlling the ruck.

I agree with you on this but think it'd be tough to implement. I've always found it weird that you can hold the tackled player down "legally" and gain an advantage or hold him down "illegally" and be penalised. Either way you're holding down a player to slow the play the ball and gain an advantage and one way is legal and one isn't but they're both really the same thing for the same reason.

How is having a huge boot not a skill? If you can kick it dead from 50 yards plus, then it probably will bounce, meaning that you have found the turf and beaten the fullback, making it an accurate kick. Mot much difference to kicking it into touch.

Btw, are people really kicking it dead on purpose that often? You called it 'doing a Sinfield' but he kicked dead on purpose, maybe a couple of times in a season, and that was usually to kill time when we were winning in big games.

Im not sure how I feel about the seven tackle rule, it could lead to more accurate kicking, but in all likelihood it will lead to less teams looking for repeat sets and more looking towards a cross field kick or power play. It might make for more entertaining rugby, but won't help when we play any Aussie teams.

I agree with this. I think the whole "kicking it dead" thing has been overblown. Most of the time teams aren't aiming to kick it dead. They'd rather it stayed in play.
As you say for it to go dead it has to find the ground so isn't as "unskilled" as some would suggest and is also easily defensible. The fact that defending teams are happy to let these kicks go dead shows it doesn't have much of a negative impact on that team.

I'd have more sympathy with a rule change in this regard if we had Union-style, huge in-goal areas. As most RL in-goals are very short it's very difficult to get the ball to stay there and doesn't require much of a misjudgement/unlucky bounce for the ball to roll dead.

Yeah I'm ok with the kicking thing. Maybe if the kick is from your own half and it goes dead then the opposition starts on the 30m instead but if you punish the kicking team too much like the suggestion mention earlier then you won't see an improvement in kicks staying in goal, more a case of conservative kicks that are intended to finish well short of the try line so not to risk it going out and you'll probably see less kicks that stay in goal than you do now.

As for when teams drill it dead purposely, it is usually near the end of the game by a team that's winning and I've always thought it their right to use that tactic as they've gotten themselves in front in the match. The point made above about how short the in goals are here in SL is very important too especially when compared to the ones in the NRL.

Personally I'd look at any rule changes that enable contested possession - stripping should be allowed as should striking at the PTB. One of the reasons the game can get very dour is the emphasis on possession and position. Anything that can shake it up a bit is a good thing IMO.

Not so sure about striking at the play the ball as I think that could get very messy very quickly, but I'm tempted by the idea of allowing stealing of the ball. Maybe see it trialled in the lower leagues where no more than 2 defenders in the tackle can steal the ball, rather than the current 1.