Quote: Nothus "It wasn't a voluntary tackle.
For it to be classed as a voluntary, Hodgson would have had to go down to the floor, get up and then play the ball without a bulls player laying a finger on him.
Brett was still on the floor when Platt picked him up and threw him over the line. Had he left him to get up and play it, then yes it would have been a voluntary.
Hope that helped.'"
It helped to prove you don't know the rule!
Quote: Nothus ""A player in possession shall not deliberately and
unnecessarily allow himself to be tackled by
voluntarily falling to the ground when not held by an
opponent. If a player drops on a loose ball he shall
not remain on the ground waiting to be tackled if he
has time to regain his feet and continue play. "'"
I agree with you that the [iinterpretation[/i which (presumably) the refs have directed is to wait if necessary forever while the player lies there. But under the rules as printed, it ought to have been a penalty to Bradford.
The ref called a pen as he reckoned the player was tackled as soon as Platt laid a hand on him. Which he was, but if the ref was playing by the rule as written, he would already have given Bradford the pen for the player having voluntarily allowed that situation to occur.
The scenario ("shall not remain on the ground" CLEARLY means that it should be a pen if you
do remain on the ground waiting to be tackled, in fact if you then after 5 minutes get up before the ref blows his whistle, then he can no longer penalise you for a VT, it's too late. (Unless you're dumb enough to do a PTB, of course)
