Not just us then when it comes to this. Also we havent mastered the technique of turning people on their backs like crabs in the tackle which makes it slower to play the ball.

Too quick a play off the ball can just lead to players running out of dummy half all the time, though - which is boring in its own way.
I'd consider a quicker play, but combine it with an 8m offside line. Split the pitch into 12x8m and make 40-20s, 40-24s.

Sadly if you talk to those who actually are touch judges off the record they will tell you that they very often call forward passes and off sides that are ignored by the referee's. You cannot help but think that there is a deal of arrogence about!

Personally as I always say its about time referees got back to applying the rules instead of interpreting them, as for holding down we should go back to the referee shouting held and the players rolling away, instead of all this surrender nonesense! It is strating to put people off our great game.

Speaking the other week Justin Morgan said that he was happy with slower, controlled play the balls so long as there is consistancy.
In his opinion it promotes more skilful play because defences are more difficult to break down.

He also said that referees should attend Super League clubs wrestling training sessions so that they have an understanding of what the coaches are teaching their players to do in the tackle.

He talks a load of shiite though to be fair

I agree. Scooting had become far too easy and effective due to the complete lack of tolerance for any work in the tackle and that meant you didn't need any 'skill' to succeed. Find the ground quickly and you would either get a quick play and a scoot against a broken, unset line or a penalty.



For a change, I agree with Morgan. The problem isn't that more time is being allowed - that was a necessity. The problem is that everything is being let go currently. Rather than having a situation in which good technique is rewarded and poor technique punished on both sides of the ball, the defence is currently being allowed total control no matter how good their work is. And, along with directives from the top, referees not knowing enough about how the game is played and coached will contribute to these poor decisions being made.

Technique also needs to be massively improved, almost across the board (Wigan being the only real exception at the minute), when it comes to working to get up. It's obvious that a lot of work has been done on defensive grappling technique in the last couple of years, and it's improving, but the other side of it doesn't seem to have progressed much at all.

We seem to have gone from one extreme to another. I can't decide which ruins the game more, super fast PTBs or the 'wrestleathon' we saw on Friday. If we speed it up too much games are literally decided on the speed of a teams PTB, with no creativity required. We saw how this had an impact at international level when we couldn't rely on the quick PTB. There has to be a happy medium were the ruck is controlled to a degree but there is still the opportunity of a quick PTB, if it's earnt.

As a sport though we've been trying to promote faster play the balls for 7 or 8 years now with constant penalties where they dont happen. I dont understand how they can make such a wholesale change to their interpretation of the law pretty much overnight and not communicate it to the teams or the fans. It might promote more skill in breaking down defensive lines but it's also incredibly boring to watch after watching the speed of the game for the last few years.

Definately not the right move imo. We are never going to catch the aussies skill wise anyway, why bother.

Yeah, defeatism is [idefinitely[/i the way forward.

My point was more that we keep changing and tweaking the way that the game is played in the UK with the ultimate aim of competing with the aussies on the international stage. All it ever seems to do is make a mockery of our league and there are far more important things we need to focus on like getting the standard of our refereeing up to speed. Skills wise we will always be a decent level off the aussies and to be fair the international game is pretty much dead in the water. We should get our own house in order first before all this messing about.

I am all for promoting the skills of the players but the wrestling I have had to watch over the last couple of games is a real negative and spoiling the game IMO. Whilst I dont want to go back to the scoot every tackle their must be a better way to encourage skilfull play. An 8 metre defensive line for example?

Improving the standard of refereeing would improve how the ruck is policed and that would improve the spectacle. Unfortunately, despite having the right idea and mindset, the RFL just haven't implemented the necessary changes in the way that they should have. They've tried to do too much at once and have done this half-heartedly.

I think that would definately be worth looking at. The problem we have, politically, is how free are we to act independently? If we did it and the NRL did not, that would make international rules very difficult to agree.

I know following the Aussies is galling, but their competition is regarded a success. Maybe we should adopt the 2nd ref?????????

Totally agree with this.

A fast PTB doesn't always mean a skoot though, if the tacklers have found themselves in a poor position then a skoot is fair enough as you have earned it but its possible to have a quick PTB AND the markers set so that if they work hard they can stop the skoot option anyway. The fast PTB then allows the ball to be moved wide quicker and would encourage more skill being used in the 3/4s.

From my point of view at least, a fast PTB is relative to the markers and line being set, not an absolute in terms in time.