Quote: imwakefieldtillidie "I think the rules are that they have to show they’ve made an effort to play the with their foot, it doesn’t actually have to make contact with it.'"
That seems to be the new 'interpretation' of the rule, I suspect to allow what seems to be the holy grail of a quick ptb - because the actual rule says:
"When the ball touches the ground it must be heeled (i.e. backwards) by the tackled player."
It seems that that particular rule has been interpreted out of existence now, since the modern approach is to make the game as quick as possible - such that I'd say 80% of ptb's in any given game are technically illegal; some players are more obvious than others, and I think you're right that Fifita's MO seems to be to exploit the number of people it takes to bring him down, by playing the ball as quickly as possible - which does sometimes look dodgy; he's far from the worst or the only offender though; the much vaunted 'Lockers' for example, has never played the ball correctly in his life, nor did Jamie Peacock, so I maintain that the penalty was incongruous and harsh.
On balance, I'm not sure I'd want rigid enforcement of the rule now - but I do think that the epidemic of wrestling and laying on is a symptom of the lax enforcement of a proper ptb; it's a coaches way of responding to a problem that the referees have allowed to develop. So maybe solving one would at least partially solve the other?