So now we’ve had a full season of the new interpretations, what do we think?

This has been our biggest area of weakness this season IMO & something we definitely need to work on. We’ve been wrestled to death at times & the result has often been slower PTBs than we were getting in the national leagues. Maybe a direct consequence of opting for a smaller & more mobile pack? It certainly favours the bigger, more physical sides.

This isn’t just about Rovers though, it’s up to us to adapt. The balance between speed & physicality certainly needed looking at, but overall have the RFL got this right or not?

Will we still see players like Burrow & Eastmond in the future if we go too far down this route?

Huddersfield v Catalans on Friday was awful to watch, despite both sides having some great players. Is this the future of our game? I hope not.

It has been awful this season, and not just from a Hull point of view. The PTB has been slowed down so much the game has become very boring at times.

With the slowing of the PTB teams have started to rely even heavier on kicks to create tries, wheras in the past good fast PTB's put a defence on the back foot and gaps started to appear.

My humble opinion.

I think the PTB needed to be slowed down IMO (maybe not this way though) a return to the 5 metre rule might of been better?. the fact that in the last 5 or so years we have seen teams with 2 hookers scooting from the play the ball has brought the skill level down as teams have stopped having to create things. give it time and we may see a return to the handling skills that made our game the greatest on earth.

We slowed it down because of the international game. We had a far better spectator sport than the NRL a few years back.
Not sure if you watched NRL then but it was just a dour battle with defences always on top. Now if you put the two leagues side by side we look a million miles away from them.

An effort by the RFL to slow may well also reduce injuries at at the collision.
As you say the introduction of the 10m rule has seen the reduction in the number of ball handling players and is the biggest change of the modern game.

When did that come in, I have seen 7m, 8m but rarely seen ten. They should name it the the 'referees flexible rule'

Wrestling in the tackle will slowly kill the game as a spectacle. As a speccie at all our games it is dire to watch, so for all neutrals and armchair viewers it cannot be conduicive to a good watch in the hope of attracting new supporters to the game.

The usual inconsistency in how the refs apply the rule also leaves a lot to be desired which means the game descends into a series of 5 drives and a kick.

It is also no coicidence that as wrestling has become the current trend, there appears to be more chicken wing tackles as opposing players attempt to slow down the PTB.

This whole tactic needs stamping out.

Anybody notice the attempted one on Vella by O'Loughlin???

There's loads of it in the game now Galea tried one on Coley as well. A few lengthy bans should be meted out that would soon stop it.

Gordon

My post wasn't suggesting we were innocent of this. It's something that is creeping into the game as a whole which is not necessary. It's a hard enough game as it is without those tactics coming into it aswell.

Staffs FC

Correct, lengthy bans might put a stop to it, but given that JJB's effort on the Ginger one only warranted (in the RFL's eyes) a one match ban, I would be surprised if Vella and Galea have any case to answer. Then again, they don't play for Leeds....

As far as I am aware Rovers are one of the only SL sides not to bring in a wrestle coach on a regualr basis.

Hull, Cas and Wakey all use Featherstones Conditioner Dave Downes either on a weekly or fortnightly basis and he is now working with the Scotland RU squad.

Huddersfield bring a guy in, as do Quins, Leeds and Wigan. Not sure about Saints and Wire and dont care about Celtic



Maybe this is something JM may look to address next year if he agrees it is one of the weaker aspects of Rovers game?

Bringing a guy in for a week of pre-season is not enough, players need constant improvement in this area as other coaches look to take advantage I reckon.

They do wrestling drills in the warm up though Jimmy

All clubs do though mate, that will be with the Conditioner, not a wrestle specialist, unless they are employing one now that I didnt know about?

I'm talking about, for example Cas, who go to Fev once a fortnight to use their Wrestle room (purpose built with padded floor and walls) and spend 4 hours (2 groups for 2 hours) working on nothing but wrestle with a guy who is well known for being one of the best in the game (even Melbourne Storm wanted him when they came over).

Add those 2 hour blocks up over a season and that is a lot of specialist time.

Maybe now Rovers have the partnership with Featherstone they will send their players to Dave more often?

AFAIK Clint Newton has been doing taking the wrestling drills during some training sessions along with Andrew Webster.

It ssmed to be picked up more at the beginning of the season and cases sent to the Disciplinary committee, that seems to have tailed off now - whether this is due to a reduction in incidents , the attention has been switched elsewhere or the purge has finished I don't know.

So not someone with expertise then?

Case concluded

A typical RFL clamp down that lasts 5 minutes then. No wonder they are rarely successful.

I seem to remember some years ago when a head high tackle was given a straight red as part of an initiative.

Whilst I agree that the wrestling at the tackle is messy & needs stamping out there is one problem with stopping it, as the sides are now 10 meters apart the wrestling /holding up is needed to alow the defence to set, the player who goes quickly to the ground gains an unfair advantage as opposed to one who attempts to break the tackle & gain ground. If the referees were to penalise for a voluntary tackle it might stop the practice.Jamie Bovil when he played for us was a prime example A great big hulk of a man who droped to the ground as soon as he was touched. The real problem is that as we alter rules to combat one supposed problem it often raises other unforseen issues. The game just needs to reflect & make its mind up what it wants to do or more important what the public want to watch. A slow war of atrition type game might be what people want? lets face it Sarecens got 45,000 to watch thier rubish this week end.

THAT WAS JUST STEVE GANSON BEING A C*CK....

I’m still not sure we’ve got the balance right here. I know we’ve followed the NRLs interpretation of the rules, but having watched their grand final the rucks are still much cleaner & quicker than ours & the game doesn’t seem to suffer as much.

Here’s an idea. Why not allow a maximum of 2 players to be involved in a tackle at any given time when the ball carrying team is inside their own half. Once the ball has been carried into your half & you are defending your line there should be no restrictions.

It would be much harder for the defensive team to continually slow the PTB & pin the opposition deep in their own half if they couldn’t get extra bodies into the tackle. This might also encourage teams to be a bit more adventurous & attack from deep.

It wouldn’t the easiest rule to enforce, but would it be any more difficult than the ball stripping rule we already have? Just a thought.

No just someone implementing the methods shown to him at Melbourne where all this started