Couple of things:

Striking for the ball - I hated this, plenty of times some fcker would scrape their studs down your hand when trying to do rake it back or to kick your hand when trying to welly the ball and force the acting half to knock on. Glad this went away.

Playing Ball to yourself - what puzzles me is when an attacker thinks the tackle has been completed, tries a quick PTB and then gets penalised for it - since I don't really understand what they have done wrong(in terms of rules infringement) since they've just placed the ball on the ground and rolled it back. Suppose it muddles up the game/tacklecount, and defenders may not attempt to tackle if within the 10m - but a clear "all onside, play-on" call from referee would make it obvious.

Re - Original question - yes players often tried the quick tap to themselves when close to the line, especially if they'd just been caught during a breakaway - I didn't really understand why they got rid of it - apart from trying to slow the PTB down.

Its a bit like the weird rule that an attacking player has to throw the ball in from the sideline, to their team-mate following a penalty touchfinder i.e. prior to the tap restart. The person taking the restart tap just use to get the ball from the touchjudge / ballboy in the "old days". Never understood this one - since effectively the attacking team "loses" a player for that set.

This site (albeit NRL focussed) outlines some of the rule changes:

dazrl.awardspace.info/h_rules.htm

Couple of things:

Striking for the ball - I hated this, plenty of times some fcker would scrape their studs down your hand when trying to do rake it back or to kick your hand when trying to welly the ball and force the acting half to knock on. Glad this went away.

Playing Ball to yourself - what puzzles me is when an attacker thinks the tackle has been completed, tries a quick PTB and then gets penalised for it - since I don't really understand what they have done wrong(in terms of rules infringement) since they've just placed the ball on the ground and rolled it back. Suppose it muddles up the game/tacklecount, and defenders may not attempt to tackle if within the 10m - but a clear "all onside, play-on" call from referee would make it obvious.

Re - Original question - yes players often tried the quick tap to themselves when close to the line, especially if they'd just been caught during a breakaway - I didn't really understand why they got rid of it - apart from trying to slow the PTB down.

Its a bit like the weird rule that an attacking player has to throw the ball in from the sideline, to their team-mate following a penalty touchfinder i.e. prior to the tap restart. The person taking the restart tap just use to get the ball from the touchjudge / ballboy in the "old days". Never understood this one - since effectively the attacking team "loses" a player for that set.

This site (albeit NRL focussed) outlines some of the rule changes:

dazrl.awardspace.info/h_rules.htm