Re: Ball stealing : Tue Jun 18, 2019 9:57 am  

Current officials, barring (and it pains me to say it) BenThaler are totally inept. There again look who's in charge of them...

Re: Ball stealing : Tue Jun 18, 2019 6:58 pm  

redmuzza wrote:

Current officials, barring (and it pains me to say it) BenThaler are totally inept. There again look who's in charge of them...

I don’t think it’s their fault in any way.

If the coaches and the players actually played tough, hard and fair within the spirit of the game it’d be easier to officiate. However coaches and players have brought this culture of being petty, constantly moaning and constantly trying to milk or cheat penalties or cheat getting away with penalties at all costs and it’s become unrefereeable.

Re: Ball stealing : Tue Jun 18, 2019 8:48 pm  

Jake the Peg wrote:

Every team in sl spend time on practicing to push the rules to the limit. Allowing ball steals would ruin the game as a spectacle

Then that must be the reason all the laws of the game to be applied equally across the board. The spectacle was ruined years ago when genuine completion for the ball was taken away in the name of speeding up the game.

Re: Ball stealing : Tue Jun 18, 2019 9:24 pm  

Beverley red wrote:

Then that must be the reason all the laws of the game to be applied equally across the board. The spectacle was ruined years ago when genuine completion for the ball was taken away in the name of speeding up the game.

It wasn’t though really. The game wasn’t filled with amazing pieces of play that began with a 2 on 1 ball steal or a marker kicking the ball 20 m upfield at the play the ball.

The game entertainment wise has suffered partly because of increased conditioning providing better and suffocating defences, and the wrestle at the play the ball. Neither of which are actually a fault of the rules they’re just an evolution of the game that it now needs evolve away from.

Personally I think we can do a couple of things to help without drastically changing the nature of the game:

1 - if you run the ball into touch it’s a play the ball rather than a scrum to the opposition. This should open the pitch up more and encourage more attacking play especially in a teams own half.

2 - hold defensive line back until the acting half touches the ball rather than when the foot touches the ball. Not much but gives the attack a bit extra time and space

Re: Ball stealing : Tue Jun 18, 2019 10:38 pm  

Him wrote:

It wasn’t though really. The game wasn’t filled with amazing pieces of play that began with a 2 on 1 ball steal or a marker kicking the ball 20 m upfield at the play the ball.

The game entertainment wise has suffered partly because of increased conditioning providing better and suffocating defences, and the wrestle at the play the ball. Neither of which are actually a fault of the rules they’re just an evolution of the game that it now needs evolve away from.

Personally I think we can do a couple of things to help without drastically changing the nature of the game:

1 - if you run the ball into touch it’s a play the ball rather than a scrum to the opposition. This should open the pitch up more and encourage more attacking play especially in a teams own half.

2 - hold defensive line back until the acting half touches the ball rather than when the foot touches the ball. Not much but gives the attack a bit extra time and space

Holding the defensive line back is the last thing we need, better to make the tackled player gain his feet place the ball on the ground & play it with their foot that will give the defence time to set & aliviate the need to mess around in the ruck.
Also why should a play into touch be rewarded by a play the ball which amounts to a tap penalty? The idea in the past of putting the ball into touch was that at the scrum you had a chance of retaining possession, I understand that the six tackle rule & uncontested/feeding scrums has changed the dynamics of the game but it certainly has not improved it.
The better conditioning of the players along with the modern interpretations of rules & multiple interchanges has resulted in many people lost to the game as their body shape or size just doesn’t suit our game anymore.
The game has become one dimensional & over structured & the other code is heading the same way.