The problem with this is the Thursday night game. All Thursdays should be derbies, no cross-pennine games. Best would be to cancel them altogether but its a Sky thing so wont happen. The golden point is a good idea.

have to agree to disagree. do't like it at all. a draw is a fair resullt, golden point just a drop goal contest. if we insist on golden point it should be golden try only or like NFl cannot win by field goal in first score, then its just extra time.

It's not the refs fault if a player is down injured in the field of play at a drop out. He can't play on and he can't judge if a player is genuinely injured or not. There is nothing he can do and with the rule changes there is still nothing he can do.

But now, in that scenario, the ‘injured’ player has to be substituted or taken off and can only come back on at next break in play.

Hopefully coaches/players will drill it into them that given there are now only 8 changes allowed that to waste one on a player ‘feigning’ injury will be criminal and even if said ‘injured’ player goes off to come back on at next stoppage, no team is going to want to defend a ‘short’ field for a full set of tackles with only 12 men

Hopefully this will see the end of the fake/cramp injuries at drop outs

It's not til there's a stoppage it's until his team regains possession or a stoppage or until the team gets an interchange card.

What the rule changes don't clarify for me is that if a team can't drop out in 30 seconds for an injured player is that a penalty under the posts?

No, for an injured player the shot clock doesn’t apply. The ‘penalty’ in those situations is you either lose a sub for the ‘injured’ player or he goes off, you keep your sub, but he has to go off and cannot come back on until next stoppage