I'm trying to clarify the rules. As I understood a deliberate knock on was not penalised in rugby league, I wanted to find out if it ever was a rule. I emailed the RFL who also stated "there is no deliberate knock on rule in Rugby League. However acording to the rules on the RFL site (dated both 2002 and 2004) www.therfl.co.uk/~rflmedia/docs/ ... 2007_%20(2).pdf .. under section 10 'Knock-on and Forward Pass' it states "A player shall be penalised if he deliberately knocks on or passes forward."

I'm trying to clarify the rules. As I understood a deliberate knock on was not penalised in rugby league, I wanted to find out if it ever was a rule. I emailed the RFL who also stated "there is no deliberate knock on rule in Rugby League. However acording to the rules on the RFL site (dated both 2002 and 2004) www.therfl.co.uk/~rflmedia/docs/ ... 2007_%20(2).pdf .. under section 10 'Knock-on and Forward Pass' it states "A player shall be penalised if he deliberately knocks on or passes forward."

As far as I'm aware there is a rule which states that (your link doesn't work btw)


What I struggle with is why anybody would deliberately knock on and what advantage you get from it?

copy and paste the link.

A deliberate knock on would be an advantage if you knock on to stop a pass reaching another player that could score.

That rule is probably an antiquated hangover from the days of competitive scrums. If one side had a massive advantage in the scrum, they might deliberately knock on so they could roll the scrum down the field.

I know deliberate forward passes exist and the only place I've ever seen them given is on the RL Xbox game.

As joetwizzy says rule exists to counter defending players deciding to knock-on deliberately instead of intercepting a pass by catching the ball.

Saddened I can see your point but this would have been extremely dangerous to do especially before limited tackles were brought in given turnover ball often relults in line breaks or overlaps.

I thought this rule was brought in a very long time ago (as in the early part of the 20th century), but rarely seems to be penalised.

Sky have frequently mentioned and my email from the RFL backed it up that "Rugby League does not have a deliberate knock on rule". Bit strange.

There is a rule for deliberate forward pass but not knock on.

I remember playing last year with a lad who was a union convert, and he was expecting me to get sin binned and penalised cause I purposely knocked down a pass from centre to winger about to score. It was just a scrum.

Has there been a change in rules since we brought in about accidental knock ons in a tackle, basically saying that every knock on given is just a player losing an attempt at keeping the ball rather than purposely knocking it down.

That other code do penalise if you knock on with one hand when you have no chance of recovering/intercepting. You will also see it penalised in the NRL as oposed to a scrum awarded.

The rule states that a player will be penalised for deliberately knocking on or passing forward. This does not mean it will be a penalty, which is what I think the OP wanted to know. He will be penalised by way of a scrum with head and feed to the opposition.

In terms of a penalty, one CAN be given for a forward passPenalty for some forward passes
If the Referee is of the opinion that a player in giving a forward pass must have been well aware that the catcher was in front of him then the referee is justified in ruling that the ball has been deliberately thrown forward.'"

A thread on, say "Ah Van's deliberate knock-on" would never reach the legendary stature of "Joynt's Voluntary Tackle". Just get used to it

Quins were penalised for a deliberate knock last year at Headingley - in about the 79th minute when they were getting pasted anyway - incredibly harsh by the ref to give it at any time but that was just rubbing salt into the wound.

The last deliberate forward pass I saw penalised was in the 1992 World Cup final (technically the receiver was in an offside position when the pass was given).

So both rules have existed but they are as rare as the legendary voluntary tackle!

Not even if we called it, say, "Ah Van to be alone" ?

Maybe a pecuniary one