Anything been done in the off season to clean up the play the ball and ruck in general. Imo one of the big reasons the game has become such a mess and difficult to watch at times in this country.

Yes the RFL have decided that big Nige will be dropped from a great height on any untidy ruck!!!

I wondered if your finger had aimed a bit too high on the first letter entered with that subject header.

If anything has been done WRT policing rules to cleaning up the PTB and ruck areas, SL will be a penaltyathon for the first few rounds until it's all forgotten about and allowed to proceed as normal.

Jamie Peacock has retired now, hence why it's well overdue

The rucks aren't too bad, it's the passages of play in between that are the problem.

allowing stripping would remove offloading. Rather than open up the game, i think allowing it would close it up as sides hold the ball as it is being attacked.

I think an issue which has spoiled the game a little is that teams are so fit these days and defenses so organised that teams can afford to give away 2/3/4 penalties and defend their line so we see most breaks or broken defences hold down, and struggling defences look to reef the ball away or knock it out and teams do it many many times in the expectation that the ref will eventually decide that one of them was down to the carrier. This is especially the case towards the end of halves as the try and run the clock out.

Ive often thought we need to introduce a third card, a 5 minute sin bin, to be used to stamp out minor offences and clean the game up. So a 5 minute sin binning for any stripping, slowing the PTB, and head-high challenges, which would give a punishment worse than a penalty but not as effecting on the game as a yellow or red card.

I think putting the onus on the defence to clean up those areas of the game would see a naturally faster ptb breaking the defensive line aswell as fewer penalties. To tip some balance back to the defence we should allow the markers to stand side by side at the ptb to make it easier to defend the scoot.

I'd say by far the biggest problem in RL - including the NRL - is the high level of predictability and inherent conservatism of coaches.

What we see far too often is highly conservative sets of tackles followed by high percentage kicks, with the aim being not to create tries directly but get into field position and hope for errors. Almost any high risk option is frowned on - many plays themselves are set plays, and in the NRL at least we don't see many teams base plays on offloads (when we do its usually one team playing catch up rugby, and when the best in the NRL do it its a pleasure to watch).

How often do we see sides try anything from attacking scrums? Or kick early in an attacking position? Or pretty much anything out of the ordinary? The reason we don't is because the risk of turning over possession is just too high in RL. Defences are better drilled than ever before, and players are so fit that we also don't often see genuinely fatigued defences.

TBH that's why I think rather than tinker with some of the rules, RL may have to look at some fairly radical ideas in the near future, with the aim being to focus on entertainment rather than the sort of things coaches want (predictability and ability to manage the game from the sideline). We have to get rid of the NRL-driven obsession with purity of the game and focus on what will make the game a better spectacle.

Agreed. It's all about the 'arm wrestle' 'completion rates' 'winning the collision' etc... I know the playing standard has dwindled in SL over recent years, but i really am struggling to count on one hand memorable games that have kept me on the edge of my seat over the last few SL seasons.

Regardless of how Leeds do (and it really isn't sour grapes because we had a bad year), first and foremost i want to start being entertained again! far too many dour affairs i can't be bothered watching most of the SL games these days which i also have easy access to.

With regard to kicking dead we should IMO have learned from RU. If it goes dead it is a top on the 20 or where the ball was kicked from whichever is nearer the opposition goal line. kicks inside the 20 (ie attacking kicks would result in a PTB at the 20. If someone aims to kick dead from their own half it would be a tap from there.

The only issue with that would be an attempted 40/20 whereby a failed 40/20 could see the opposition getting the ball back inside your 40 yard zone and would probably negate this practice. My only solution for that would be that if it was kicked from inside your own 40 and went dead, play would restart with a 7 tackle play.

That seems quite complicated. perhaps on this occasion we should copy RU. If the attacking team kicks the ball into the in-goal area & the defence makes it dead the defending team should be allowed to tap or kick the ball on the 20 metre line. That should reduce the "hopeful" kick into the in-goal area which can currently "unfairly" benefit the attacking team.

https://www.loverugbyleague.com/post/rf ... esmanship/ The Josh Jones incident was outrageous, the opposition should have been given a scrum for a forward pass. Jones threw the ball 2 metres forward to try to win the penalty. In the other instance at least the ball was passed backwards into the opponent.

https://www.loverugbyleague.com/post/rf ... esmanship/ The Josh Jones incident was outrageous, the opposition should have been given a scrum for a forward pass. Jones threw the ball 2 metres forward to try to win the penalty. In the other instance at least the ball was passed backwards into the opponent.

Completely agree OF push poor officiating to start with.

The Josh Jones one was utterly ridiculous.

Blatant forward pass.

Same for dissent. Didn't we used to be able to march the offending team back 10 yards back in the old days.

And on purpose, surely that should be a professional foul?

You rarely see that nowadays do you? I don't know why. I'm sure that dissent is still as common.

The innocent look on his face when he did it though. Hilarious.

Easiest penalty I've ever seen. Not even close.

Are the refs having some kind of contest on awarding scrum penalties this year?

To be fair I think he always looks that gormless.

I suspect it's down to teams holding the ball in the scrum deliberately to try and catch the defending team offside. Seems to be a new thing this year.

Wigan was doing it last season,nothing new.Same old Wigan always....we all know what come next.