No seen this mentioned elsewhere, but it’s been agreed there will be a clampdown on the play the ball - essentially, defenders must clear the ruck, attackers must regain feet, place the ball on the ground and make a genuine attempt to play it with the foot.

Also, 21 man squads announced 2 days before the game, any players brought into the 17 outside of that 21 will see the team lose an interchange.

All make perfect sense to me, particularly the play the ball. Glad to see no gimmicks.

They can make all the rule changes they want, until the officials get better nothing will change.

Having seen the Wigan v Leeds friendly I have to ask "when does that start"?

Should make the game look tidier but whether it'll make a material difference, I'm not sure.

Play the ball rule changes haven't gone far enough from what I've read. The main problem with the play the ball isn't the ball carrier playing it too quickly and not attempting to touch it with his foot, or the defender staying in the ruck or clamping the ball to prevent a quick PTB. The biggest problem with it is the ball carrier moving forwards. There are teams in SL who make as many metres after the tackle is completed as they do during it. Some go to extreme lengths, pushing forwards and sidestepping the markers and playing it next to them, making them offside or even behind them. Ref's do nothing usually when this happens, bar being more relaxed about the defenders being square which just makes everything messy.

Didn't we go down this PTB route a few years ago?

Yes, until the rules states the player MUST play the ball with the foot and NOT move off the mark AND the officials enforce it the ptb will remain a mess.

About time something was done about the PTB. Now let's see how strict the refs are?

Last year in the NRL the refs were super hot and then relaxed the rules slightly but still generally players are touching the ball with the foot.

The only way the players will learn is if the refs blow and their needs to be zero tolerance as currently the lack of PTB is ridiculous.

Just following in the shadow of the NRL as usual. Except for having two refs, because that would need actual money being spent.

Even if we went to two refs now we'd just have another inept official involved in each game.

The RFL’s Match Officials Department had been asked to submit recommendations to the Laws Committee regarding the play-the-ball, following discussions through the 2019 season.

The proposal, which was unanimously accepted, stresses the responsibility of the tackled player “to maintain balance and control and make a genuine attempt to make contact on the ball with the foot”.

It is also the tackled player’s responsibility to place the ball on the ground at their feet and not on a defender – and a failure to fulfil any of those requirements (balance, control, placing the ball on the ground and making a genuine attempt to play it with the foot) will be ruled a lost ball (not a penalty), leading to a scrum

The Laws Committee believe a scrum is a more appropriate punishment for this error than a penalty.

The responsibility of defenders is also detailed, in a number of ways, including as follows:

“No tackler should make an adjustment on the tackle or leave hands or body in the play-the-ball area after the tackle is complete. Referees should act on any interference once the tackle has been called”;
Tacklers who ‘clamp’ the ball and keep their hands/arm on the ball when the ball carrier is standing up should be penalised”.

In turn the above has been ratified by the RFL Board.

Taken from the RFL site.
Thank you

Well.... There certainly wasn’t a clamp down on making an attempt with the foot in game 1 of the season.
Wasn’t quite as blatant as last year when you had players with both feet on the floor and just rolling it backwards, but last night, there were 2 or 3 PTB’s every set where the attacker just lifted 1 leg and rolled it back - certainly not genuine attempts to play it.

Yeah, wasn't applied well last night, makes you wonder if he forgot about it. There were a couple of ridiculous things happening last night. Austin where he barely got off the floor, threw it through his open legs and dove on the floor and got a penalty was one. Strangely when Wigan did exactly the same thing they were penalised. The moving off the mark was very evident again. There was a particular moment in the second half where Warrington were driven back onto their own 10 and held was called. The player with the ball then side stepped the tacklers and ran forwards, recovering all the ground he'd lost being driven back during play. He then played the ball with the Wigan players out of position and tried to claim a penalty for them not being square. It just looks so shambolic on TV and it's why when you see the NRL or particularly Origin being played, it seems like a different sport or a different species is playing it.

Some of the decisions just encouraged messing about at the PTB

Was very poor and my concerns about how it would be applied were right.

I'm not convinced SL refs will clamp down on this at all. In the NRL last year from day 1 refs were hot on it which led to people complaining but if from minute 1 you clamp down on this the players will soon learn to sort it out.

Last night within 2 mins there was awful PTB attempts which sets the tone. If players know they can get away with it they will!!

It doesnt help that we dont have two refs as really you need one ref to police the ruck area.

Doesnt matter what the laws/rules state if the officials dont enforce it.

The only way the PTB will improve is is the refs blow 20 pens a game for it. There will be uproar at the start but coaches and players SHOULD soon adapt.

Unfortunatly history shows us that when the refs do blow for lots of pens then they are the ones that get hammered for enforcing the rules rather than the players getting criticised for braking them. Then all of a sudden the new clamp down is forgotten and we are back to square 1, hence why we have the same discussion year on year.

Its lunacy that we have a set of rules/laws drawn up but as a game we only chose to enforce certain ones

Has the knock on rule changed or was it just more poor officiating?

The charge down you mean? According to referees on Twitter last night, the rule is that as long as the ball is rising from a kick, you are entitled to play at it and it will be counted as a charge down and not a knock on.

It was interesting as they also agreed that a few times previously these have been incorrectly ruled as knockons so it's no wonder we are all confused really.

So, after watching all 4 tv matches, it appears standing to one foot, and simply rolling the ball under a lifted foot is what the refs will accept as ‘making a genuine play at the ball’.
Why announce an interpretation change if you’re not actually going to enforce it?

Good to see that the rule clarification, duly consulted on, ratified and adopted, managed to survive the first 5 minutes of the first game of the season, before being abandoned; what we'll now see is occasional penalties, met with reasonable cries of inconsistency from fans and coaches alike.

Hooray for the RFL!

Perhaps a radical change to the way the game is restarted is needed as follows,

All defenders 10 yards back from play the ball, no need for close markers because they can't strike for the ball anyway these days.
Tackled player regains feet ,places ball on ground, taps ball with foot then picks ball up & passes to player of his choice ,no need for dummy half.
Less players in ruck ,less chances for penalties so game speeds up & ref only needs to concentrate on moving off mark & contact with foot & give linesmen more input on offside at ptb.

Would like to say I am surprised but I'm not.

As soon as they announced it I was skeptical it would be enforced.

What is really shocking is they couldn’t even enforce the ruling for 1 week let alone a season.

The refs have put themselves into a hole now as when they do make a ruling for an incorrect PTB its going to look stupidly inconsistent as they are simply picking and choosing when to let it go and when not too.

What should have happened was on Thursday the very first incorrect PTB should have been penalized and then the players and coaches would have understood this was serious and it was time to fix up but no the ref just decided to ref his own game where the rules do not matter.

Still least the NRL is back soon and the refs there actually do attempt to implement the rules.

I’d go back further than game 1. The pre-season friendliest were the perfect time to clamp down. Blow for 40 penalties if need be in pre-season friendlies, then there’s no real impact on results etc, but the message to the clubs is ‘this is the new standard, get it right in time for round 1, otherwise you’ll be getting hammered again’.

And if they don’t play ball and try to outlast the refs in a game of will, then introduce fines for the clubs - if your team is penalised more than ‘x’ times in a game for incorrect play the balls, you’ll be fined, and the fines will increase for multiple offenders.

Grow some balls as a sport. We should have minimum expectations, and if the players clubs can’t meet those expectations, hammer them.

Perhaps linking the pub with the offside law might help. The defensive line must only advance when the ball has been played with the foot. Not all charge forward as the ball carrier starts to bend forward.
Simply no offside if the ball doesn’t touch the foot at the ptb but every encroachment is penalised if the ptb is correct.