On last nights showing, the ball steal call is becoming more and more of a lottery.
There were instances of the ball carrier "letting the ball go" if there was contact with the ball, rather than the ball being "stolen".
It is becoming similar to "diving" in football and it seems that there is less responsibility on the attacking player to protect the ball.
Surely for a penalty to be given, the ball should need to be reefed, rather than just touched ?

It's a tough one for ref's. Often even with several replays I'm not sure whether it was a penalty or lost ball. No idea what could be done other than asking players to play fair

For me referees give pens too easily for balls "steals/hands on the ball"

When your making tackle you have to secure the ball. So your hands are then going to end up on it. Unless the referee can see deliberate attempt at stealing the ball then they should give a knock on. You'd be amazed how quickly all teams suddenly start keeping hold of it.

I think, equally as likely, teams would increasingly tackle the ball, to force the knock on decision

With humans involved. Conning the ref and the ref making split second calls error will happen. It'sjjust a facet of sports that will endure forever. You can only hope they try to get it right.

Just go back a few years & let them strip the ball I never saw it as a problem. Union have got it right on this, you let the ball be stripped from you its a knock on against you if it touches the ground.

That, IMO, would be the way to go with it. Put the onus on the ball carrier to retain possession.

The one that bugs me is what there are a few in the tackle and all momentum by the ball carrier has pretty much stopped, and the ball comes literally flying out, then the ref calls for a knock on. I can't see how you can knock it on and the ball comes flying 5 metres forward, surely it would just bobble to the floor? That's where, if I was a ref and couldn't quite make out exactly what had happened, I would be inclined to assume it was reefed.

Players bending the rules to see how far they can go and biased fans complaining about match officials.

The season is back!

Then we'll get 2 tacklers holding the players arms whilst a 3rd takes the ball.
The reason it can work in Union is because more than one attacker can be involved in a tackle which isn't the case in League.

The rule isn't the problem. It's about the only one that can work in the fully pro era.
Personally I think the refs could be better/more consistent on this but as mentioned earlier it's incredibly difficult for them to tell and as fans we're just going to have accept that the refs will get some right and some wrong.
It would also help if Sky didn't repeat the incidents over and over again in slow motion and then the commentators constantly refer to it throughout the game. Union has just as much a problem with reffing interpretations but they don't focus on it.

There are so many issues here, tacklers put hands on ball/arms in to stop offload, tackler releases arms/tries to pull arm out when attacker squeezing and ball comes out.. Who's at fault?

Not biased on this one.
I wasn't bothered who won the game last night but, some of the ball "steal" decisions are ludicrous.
For me, the rule needs to be about a deliberate act to steal or dislodge the ball when there are 2 or more players making the tackle and in many instances, the ball carrier should protect the ball far better.

But it's all subjective and when you don't have the camera angles to get in tight there would be no way to tell. I think Cummings stated on the video, that because the tackler was in the tackle too long the ref had no option but to give the penalty. If he can't fully see what has gone on and the ball pops out there is an element of balance of probabilities. If the tackler is leaning in and staying in the tackle too long, without a tight angle to see if his knee has nudged the ball out, you have to assume the action leads to that being the case.

I'd argue some of those balls steals now. So if you and me can't agree, 3 days later after both seeing tight angles and replays, then how can we expect someone to get it right, stood 10m away, whilst also checking offside. Players including tacklers have a responsibility not to stay in the tackle as well as attackers to secure the ball. There is no ruling that would ever get rid of subjectivity.

If we just allowed ball stealing, then is would become a right mess. I know I would get my players to hold him up in the tackle and have 3 or 4 ripping at the arms. Attackers would be diving for the floor rather than looking to offload. It would be 5 drives and a kick spectacular.

I agree with the general frustration with this.

Responsibility should ALWAYS be on the ball carrier. If it comes out there must have been a deliberate play at the ball. Atm, the ref may as well toss a coin and decide that way.

And if that becomes the norm and a penalty is given there will be more "dropped" balls at every tackle than enough.

The problem is that people are trying to get an objective decision made based on a subjective situation. By it's very nature that cannot be consistent. That is sport.

This will be a problem until a second ref is brought in to police the ruck players are willing to risk letting go of the ball knowing that ref being unable to see them drop will give the pen for a steal

At the moment the benefit of the doubt seems to be given to the ball carrier. Just change that. If the ref can see or thinks he can see a steal - penalty to the attacking team. If the ball just comes loose or the ref isn't sure what's happened - scrum with head and feed to the defending team.

I'm torn on this issue. I like the rule on paper. If an attacking player's priority is on ball retention we go back to the old days of stick it up your jumper. It at least promotes an off-loading game. However, the ambiguity in making interference with the ball decisions does lead to frustration and a certain amount of gamesmanship. I'm not sure how you can promote an attacking off-loading style while cutting out the 50/50 calls. Without a solution I say we keep the rule as it is.

exactly, the responsibility being on the ball carrier just means they wont promote the ball, we would have far fewer offloads.

Leave it as it is, accept you will win some and lose some.

Not only that you will have people in gang tackles ripping and applying pressure. I think there was some clear as day light plays at the ball in that game even if they didn't have contact when the ball came out.

I think the issue is knowledge on technique. I'm not sure how much understanding officials have of why defenders are doing what they are doing. With more knowledge, officials could have a better opinion of what is lack of control of the ball and what is a strip.

But then again, the commentators that spout nonsense about the incident's don't help. They should know better than to talk down the officials and their decisions, especially as they have very limited knowledge of modern day RL.