Like this. It will discourage aimless hoofs down the field.


I also like this. It will mean that pressuring the kick is a win-win situation.

I don't like the sound of that, at all.

Tell you what, take a ball out onto a local pitch and stand 10 metres in from touch on one side, around the 20 metre line.

Now try to kick the ball so it lands in a five metre square patch of grass in the opposite corner. It has to be in the air long enough that someone who was stood behind you could run forward and catch it before it lands.

Try it 20 times, and come back to us with how many landed exactly where you wanted them to with the right amount of time in the air. Then tell me there's no skill involved in cross-field kicks.

What's the new advantage rule?

Said by someone who has clearly never played the game. If you have it was probably as a prop, the Paleaaesina kind.

You try and do it and see what success rate you come back with.

Ade Gardner's try for St Helens against Leeds in March (46-6), the leap by Gardner made that try, it was perfect...the kick by Roby however wasn't great and quite a desperate play on the last. It's about the recipient of the kick, and the how the opposition's defence deals with it, not really about the kick itself.

Its still got to land in the right place, though,and in order to make it hard to take, you need to get height on it.

1. Nope, it penalises the 'attacking' team too much when the vageries of a bounce/pitch divots/swirling winds can mean the ball pulling up way short of the try line or bouncing miles over for similar power/directioned kicks.
Trying to put back rotation on a ball to hold it up and get distance over 35-40m is extremely difficult without having a player charging you down if no.2 gets the go-ahead

2. So if a defender charges down, the ball goes back toward the attackers goal line 25m and they recover it on the last, isn't the risk for open kicking massively more riskier. Will we be seeing the offside rule tightened up because that will just be a joke situation with some teams already infringing the 10 by a few yards, more so at the back end of a game..

3. Again, if we see defending teams being offside at scrums as has been the case for like forever with virtual impunity having an extra man over won't make a huge amount of difference.
Stop the defending team from moving up so quick, as in enforce the offside rule properly, retiring back the required distance behind the scrum until the ball is out and they'll be space for teams to attack, no need to have an extra loose man.