Hard/soft penalties

[Jono1987]

With the standard of referring appearing (again) to get worse as the year goes on, I bring the concept of hard/soft penalties up. No one wants to see referees decide games with their whistle. Watching teams gain legs up through penalties like not square at marker, or off side can be frustrating. So I would break up penalties into two categories;

Soft
- Off side
- Not square at marker
- Rake of the ball

Hard
- Head high tackle
- Lifting tackle
- Dangerous throw

Those are just some examples but I gather people can see where I'm going...

With soft penalties I would simply advance the attacking team 10 metres and restart the tackle count.

Hard penalties advance 10 metres and then kick to touch. The hard penalty may seem harsh but it should be used as a deterrent to stop players from being reckless/careless when going into tackles.

Thoughts? Pros/cons?

 

[Chicken_Hunter]

Good concept IMO. Penalties these days are such a huge advantage. But will it ever change? Probably not.

 

[simmo1]

I reckon the defending side would have their hands all over the play-the-ball if the penalty for a 'soft' penalty is so, well, soft. I reckon players would risk giving up 10m in the hope the ref rules it as a knock on.

 

[Jono1987]

Yeah you're probably right in that regard. However I believe there needs to be a greater emphasis on ball control from the carrier anyway. Penalties given for strips at the moment are awarded far too freely.

 

[some11]

With soft penalties I would simply advance the attacking team 10 metres and restart the tackle count.

Hard penalties advance 10 metres and then kick to touch.

I've always wanted it to be this way.

 

[adamkungl]

Definitely worth a try, I've been saying this for a while.

 

[ANTiLAG]

The refs and video refs stuff up existing rules. Why add more to complicate their feeble minds?

 

[besthalfbackPEARCE]

Worth a trial.

 

[ANTiLAG]

Thats what people said about Mitchell Pearce... and he's still the incumbent origin half...

 

[besthalfbackPEARCE]

He passed the trial. Sowie is still on trial.

 

[ANTiLAG]

A record of 0-4 is a pass?

What is a fail?

 

[jonno_knights]

Good idea. Kinda like short-arm, long-arm in Union (although I dont understand their exact rules, like 99.9% of people).

I'd tweak it slightly though. The 'soft' penalties just restart the tackle count where the offence occurs. Only problem I see is teams bending the rules a lot early in the tackle count, especially when they have the opposition pinned in their 20m zone.

Then the 'hard' penalties just as penalties are now, kick for touch at the spot of the offence. So in essence scrap this 10m advancement business.

Penalties are having too large an impact on the game today. The majority of tries are scored on the back of penalties, which in this defensive age has a massive impact on the results when soft penalties are awarded.

 

[ANTiLAG]

Do you mind Jonno? You're post on topic interferes with my trolling/thread highjack.

 

[LeagueNut]

I'd tweak it slightly though. The 'soft' penalties just restart the tackle count where the offence occurs. Only problem I see is teams bending the rules a lot early in the tackle count, especially when they have the opposition pinned in their 20m zone.

Then the 'hard' penalties just as penalties are now, kick for touch at the spot of the offence. So in essence scrap this 10m advancement business.

I'd vote for this way. :thumn

For the bolded bit, maybe they could say two "softs" in a row = one "hard" penalty?

 

[ANTiLAG]

The rules are fine as they are. Next you'll want to add in line outs.

 

[The Engineers Room]

Been said before so many times but I agree. My suggestion is you have the normal penalty for foul play like head high tackles (Hard) and the differential penalty for the soft penalties.

The differential shall be change so the team gets no penalty kick. That means they get the tap only and can not kick for goal or for touch. But what I would say is that say three of the same type of differential (soft) penalty should result in a full (hard) penalty. And deliberate holding down and the like would be (hard) full penalties.

 

[trudge]

Penalties should simply be six again from where you are

Or

Kick for touch and complete your current set.

 

[Scott Gourley's Lovechild]

Perhaps it would be better to make more current penalties into differential penalties, since we already have that option regarding scrum based penalties.

With differentials though, I would also take out the option to kick for touch. So your options would be a tap or a kick down field.

 

[Slackboy72]

Does anyone remember that game where Brisbane lost a game from a penalty for an incorrect play of the ball? Yes the play of the ball was incorrect but it wasn't worth a penalty and it wasn't worth losing a match for.

 

[Dingus]

A clean and quick ruck is so important to rugby league, lessening the penalty in this regard will worsen the game.

Play of the ball penalties should be errors.



On a similar note does anyone else think its stupid that a penalty 15 metres from the SIDELINE is effectively twice as good as a penalty 5 metres from the sideline as a team can gain far more distance kicking for touch.