jonh, read the text at the bottom, they can drive you back fine. It's just a change to call held when a team-mate of the ball carrier joins in.

On the lifting the leg front, i'd imagine deliberately raising the leg will see the ball carrier penalised for foul play

I don't like it, they're making the game too soft. Was dragging or leg lifting becoming a real problem? In my opinion no, Wingers still scored loads of tries last season, and I can't remember many instances when a player has lifted just one leg during a tackle, it's usually smart play after held is called to slow the ptb down

[iApplicationThis does not prevent players driving an opponent into touch or back into his own in goal area providing that a team mate of the ball carrier has not added their weight to the tackle. As soon as the referee sees a tackling player dragging the ball carrier in a tackle that involves more than one tackler he will call "held". If the tackling players continue to move the ball carrier after the "held" call they should be penalised.[/i

how does it make the game soft or spoil it ?

as i said earlier , the dominant driving tackle is NOT outlawed .

it just stops a 2nd or 3rd player coming in after the original tackle and dragging the ball carrier

a good move in my view

but thinking about it , the rule for last year was similar regarding dragging a tackled player , the new rule just comes in a bit earlier during the tackling process

theres nothing fires the crowd up like 2 or 3 tacklers driving a man backwards near his own line.
picking em up and carrying ems different, as is dragging em back by the shirt.

so why not leave it alone, and just change the bit were carrying em backs not allowed?

and we seems now we arnt allowed to tackle by grabbing the shirt (my interpretation anyway).
theres nothing like seing a winger grabbed by the shirt and swung into touch imo.

as a previous poster mentioned........NFL (again)
we are going that way...they have penalties for horse collar tackles (grabbing the shoulder pads), chop blocks (similar to spear tackles , but awarded when a tackler hits a guy about knee hight and he spins up in the air and comes down on his head), uneccasary roughness (charging in after a tackles made , or quarterbacks released ball, similar to a flop, or late charge on the kicker) and face mask (fortunately we havnt gone all pansy yyet and started wearing helmets.)
but we do seem heading that way where the balls played at the place of forward momentum, and not where the ball carrier ends up.

as stevos fond of saying.......its not tiddly winks.

Spot on.

The lifting the leg thing is a daft rule change, basically, if your a prop and you manage to stay on your feet thats it, the defending team can do nothing to take you to ground other than throw you over a leg. I hate the RFL

It does not change the ability to drive the player back unless a team mate of the ball carrier joins in the the tackle, then it's a held call to get the ball played and moving again. It in no way stops 2 or 3 defenders from driving back the ball carrier whether in open field, into the ingoal area or into touch.

That's not true though, all the change does is make held be called when the defenders lift one leg of the ball carrier. If they don't lift his leg (but his leg comes off the ground) then held isn't called until the tackle is completed normally. It's actually a more sensible rule than calling held when both legs are lifted off the ground if you think about it - if that was introduced to promote safety, it's a bit bloody late by the time the guy is in the air and anything can happen, and it actually speeds up the game. You can still dominate the tackle and ground the ball carrier, you just have to use a bit more technique than simply 3 men on him and lifting his legs.

Lets see how it actually plays out, and what the reactions of the players and coaches are.

And seriously mate, if you think NFL is soft, I suggest you give it a go. All that padding and protection you're wearing is also being worn by the 275lb guy who's got the acceleration over 10 metres of a great sprinter running full force into you trying to shred you. Without that protection today people would be killed on a regular basis in the sport. Even with all that protection the size and power of the athletes involved still results in some horrific career ending injuries on a reasonably regular basis. That's why they have penalties for unnecessary roughness - it's already plenty rough enough as it is.

These rules are turning the sport into a game which the ref controls, IMO you shoudln't need a ref all game.

In the late 80's early 90's the only time you saw or heard from the ref was when they awarded a try or broke a fight up.

Now I'm on edge all the time when we are defending waiting for the ref to blow his whistle for a penalty.

Forget quick play the balls, all it encourages is scooting hookers and 5 drives and a kick.

Force team to put some effort and thought into their play.

All this will do is force endless penalties, and an increase in players in possession holding the tacklers trying to milk penalties. The game as a result will end up slower, not quicker.

Plus, the referees can't keep up with play now. Heaping all these silly rules on them is making the job even harder.


The RFL are a complete joke.

i dont think NFL is soft. Only comparison ive made with any pointer to softness is the helmet wearing.
its actually the helmet that causes the injuries most of the time.
and helmet to helmet tackles are legal arnt they??
i saw a young rookie quarterback (on for the injured regular quarterback) run it down the sidelines only to be taken out helmet to helmet. Play was held up for 20 minutes why he got medical attention, then stretchered off.

so it begs the question......wouldnt they be better off playing without helmets?? Maybe RL headguards instead?
rest of the padding i can live with. Dont we see rugby players with shoulder pads? arms strapped up? chest protectors? etc.

A full on shoulder to the head from some of the monsters playing that sport whilst also wearing shoulder pads that are more armour than pads could quite possibly kill you without a helmet on. I wouldn't be a quarterback in American Football for a gold clock To me having the football whilst a bunch of fecking huge (and lets face it some are monsters that make RL players look tiny) blokes try their best to take you to pieces is somewhat akin to going standing in the middle of the Mecca screaming obscenities at Allah

It won't cause any more penalties than now if the players adhere to the ref calling held like they're supposed to though.

I find that statement baffling, ref's like Holdsworth were just as (in)famous for interfering and arsing up the game as the refs of today.