am i the only person who hates the rule where a player can simply place his foot over the dead ball line and now the touch line and catch/knock ball out and get a restart on 20 yrd line or half way if restart kick.to me on a kick-off the idea is to make the attacking team field a kick as close to there own line as possible so to get the ball to drop a yard from dead ball line is a great kick which now gets punished by a player simply stood there one foot over line and help ball on its way.where is the skill required to do that.i know this rule has been out a while now but now the new rule where you can do the same on touch line is a joke.but for me the kicks in general play rule is one of the worst decisions r.l as ever dreamt up.to see a player have to field a kick and escape tacklers to avoid a drop out is one of the most exciting parts of a game(e.g talanoa friday night} the rule just punishes great attacking play/skill.for a ball to role into the ingoal and pop up a yrd from going dead only for a player to whack it out and not make play for it just because he has one foot out is rewarding the player who has shown the less skill.surely the game should be about rewarded the skillfull players and entertaining the fans.for the life of me i can't see how any of these rules help achieve this.olso a high tackle whether sloppy,careless or delibrate should be yellow card and on report.that way at least the opposition gain advantage.fed up of a player staying on (when your player could be carried off ) .then missing games when you'd want him to play against a team close to you in table.how can the r.l put a team at a disadvantage because a opponent has decided to take some-ones head off is beyond me.thanks for reading.rant over

I THINK I understand what you are saying, and agree with you.

It's just a bit hard to follow when you type it like that !!! RANT - lol

had punctuation marks, good points made,agree with it all, whats not to understand?lol

cheers.just had to get it off my chest.glad i'm not the only one.just been watching some old games on dvd recentley before these rules came in and found them more entertaining than some games now.watching the full backs and wingers stepping out of tackles behind posts and diving for the line as if if they was going for a try was awesum stuff

Funny enough I was saying the same to my mates on Friday night, it's a stupid rule and in my eyes if a player has a foot in touch then catches the ball then he's taken the ball in to touch regardless if the ball was going out on the full anyway.

It may be a silly rule, however it is a rule and the players, especially the kickers know the rule. They should therefore adjust their kicks accordingly.

Ridiculous rule - the original "on or over the line" worked perfectly well for ever and a day, so why change it?

Get rid of Video Refs as well, they're an embarrassing gimmick.

I understand the main point of your post but a couple of things i disagree on
1. if this occurs from a kick off then I don't mind the rule, as with us on Friday twice on the sideline, if that happens on the goal line then its been hit too hard with an entire side of the pitch to aim for.

2. for me part of why you get a player fielding a kick and then escaping tackles to avoid a drop out is down more to the pressure of the runners not the kick. for example when Catalans kicked a grubber in the second half Westerman was under no pressure and just allowed the ball to go dead. had he been under pressure he would of had to of made a snap decision. other times the ball looks like it is going out but the full back wants to get on with it and so steps out, picks it up runs for a tap restart.

i do agree that in some situations it can add an extra yard of the ingoals to the benefit of the defence. i wouldn't call it skill just more positional awareness on their part

3. a sin bin for every high tackle is not a good idea in my opinion,

I think on report should be scrapped because they review the game anyway and pick up on things the ref hasn't put 'on report' . if anything, any put 'on report' should be a an automatic sin bin, Elima and Bowen both deserved 10 minutes, even if nothing else happens (fine, suspension) at least the team the offence was committed against will benifit there and then and not just a penalty

i know what you mean about pressure from the chasers playing a big part on whether the kick is good or not but surely to put a kick in which makes a defenders decision for him is a skill in its self.you mentioned westerman on friday been under no pressure.well if ball was not going to roll dead he would of had to run it out regardless of chase.olso to have a kick roll ingoal and not go dead means some one has to retreve ball and then the rest of the team need to make it back into position to drive ball away from line.to turn your fullback and wingers around with kicks enabling the line to get up in their faces is a skill but to have them return the ball from behind their own line is a massive plus.i know the old saying "a kick is only as good as the chase" but a great kick gives you hell of a better chance of a good chase.inregards to the sin bin/on report situation it said on back chat last night there was only 10 red cards last year yet 50 dispinary hearings which led to bans.simply shows the report system is a complete cop out for refs

Just a thought, but wouldn't it be better, and fairer, if all in goal areas were the same size? Some pitches have smaller areas than others

it would in ideal world but if cas had bigger in goals there pitch try line to try line would probaly be about 70yrds.i do quite like how pitches differ like cas's tight pitch compared to the open areas of k.c or bradford.just feel it challenges the pleyers to adapt and its what home advantage is all about.saying that i would prefer them to make ingoals bigger for grand final.have no problem with small ingoals on smaller pitch like cas but on a big pitch like old trafford don't really understand why there so small.olso saw a few players crsahing into advertising boards last year which could be avoided

Didn't that rule get stopped (Foot over the dead ball line). I Can remember Gaz Raynor always doing it until it got overturned where if you did it, it was drop out??

That is so teams can produce a pitch to suit their tactics, also if you made it a set size then it would be dictated by the smallest pitch.

I stand to be corrected but I dont think the 'foot over the line' is a new rule. I think that's always been the rule?

There's definitely a lot more awareness of the rule nowadays amongst players which is probably whats given people the impression that it's a new rule

There's been a slight change to the interpretation of the rule in recent years in that you now can only put a foot over the line and knock it dead only if the ball is moving when before you could do it regardless.

that would be great if all the playing areas were the same size ie every line being 10m but its just not possible like at cas or Featherstone where they have to reduce the distance between the 40m and 30m line to less than 10metres