You'd end up with about 10 penalties a game for it, just look at how many times there is a defender left in back play at the PTB, nothing to stop dummy half picking it up and passing it backwards into the man on the floor.

I think the need to distinguish between if a defender is interfering or not - if he's on the ground, not in the line of passing then he should be ok and not be able to be used as a penalty milk.

EDIT**** - RFL response

Voila!

He kicked more than one penalty from a deliberate play the ball onto a defender didn't he

And neither were as blatant as the Josh Jones example, which seems to have been the catalyst for this contrary announcement - that directly contradicts Ganson's initial support for Childs' decision.

I'm glad they've provided clarity - and I hope the execution of it is handled properly and consistently; and bigger picture, get out of the habit of defending a referee decision as a default position - supporters would respect the process more, if they'd been honest and said "yes, that was against the spirit of the game and Mr Child should have penalised it."