The new ball steal rule had virtually took offloading out of the game at the moment. Defenders clamp the ball and attackers are fighting to keep a tight hold of it. The thought of offloading is last thing any attacker is thinking of.

What an awful rule it is. Who decided it would improve the game? Can think of no other sport that compulsively tinkers year after year. No wonder the game cannot break out of its existing spectator base.

It's pathetic and discredits a great game...
What a shame.....

Yeh it’s an awful rule.
You get 3 men in the tackle.
One clamps the ball.
2 drop off and leave big man on small man who just rags the ball away.
It will stifle the flowing play as the runner is thinking about protecting the ball rather than making a break or an offload.
Garbage new rule.

Exactly and what possible chance does a young kid or half have of holding on with an 18 stone prop ragging at the ball? Its crazy. Corey Hall had Liam Watts taking the ball off him the other day. He had no chance.

Yeh, that was case in point.
Hall had no chance.
Like a playground bully taking his sweets off him...


Hope they look at it again....

It's not a great rule but to attribute the sport's historic difficulties with expansion to minor rule changes is somewhat preposterous.

Didn't say that did I? Point is it doesn't help. I used to enjoy taking people who were new to the sport to matches because it was a simple game to explain and understand. Nowadays I don't where I'd start. Hope that's not too preposterous for you.

To be fair its quite a simple game to understand.....

Rugby League is a 6 tackle game unless certain things happen and then its 7.

If a foul occurs its a penalty but some fouls arent penalties they are set restarts.

If 2 players are in the tackle and steal the ball its a penalty unless its in a certain area of the field and then its play on whether its 2 men in the tackle or 5.

If a team kicks the ball into touch its given to opposition unless they kick it from their own 20 and it goes into touch in the opposition 40 or if they kick it from the 40 into touch in the oppositions 20 then the kicking team keep the ball. All these are 6 tackle sets. If a team kicks it dead opposition gets a 7 tackle set.

Once points are scored the clock runs and the conceding kick off unless its in a certain period of time in the game when the clock stops until its kicked off.

If a player knocks on while playing the ball the handover is at the place he knocks on. If the player at dummy half knocks on the handover happens where the non offending team chooses. Either 10m, 20m in from touch or in the middle of the field.

Wigan are allowed to lie on.

A quick glance at the stats suggests offload numbers in the first couple of games are pretty similar to last year's though some teams eg wire do it much more than others eg us, Wigan. Though obviously this might well change as teams get more savvy. I'd like to see how things pan out before condemning it. Also, is it actually a new rule? A one on one has been legal for some years now

Brilliant. Well said

That gave me a chuckle.