Hard/soft penalties

[Scott Gourley's Lovechild]

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.

If you mean the one where Andrew Gee tapped the ball incorrectly then yes. The rules back then stated that the ball had to be free of the hands and be propelled forward with the foot (hence tap kick). Why Andrew Gee took the tap instead of the bemused Allan Langer behind him I will never know.

 

[Newcastle Cow]

Whilst I don't want to go down the path of making our game more complicated like that yawnion rubbish I like this idea. There's nothing more annoying than your team being penalised for a 50/50 (or worse) stripping or play the ball call and the other team advancing 60 odd meters up the field for nothing.

Maybe the refs could have a discretion to make a 'soft' penalty a 'hard' penalty if it was repeated or obvious etc. Then again, arguably, that defeats the whole purpose...

 

[Jono1987]

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.

I guess that's where the 10m advancement kicks in. To try and stop teams from just blatantly abusing the system.

 

[Benji Magic]

The idea has merit for sure, the advantage gained by kicking for touch and then having a full set is too great for minor penalties.

Maybe for soft Penalties if you kick for touch you only get 4 tackles?

Also by giving the mark to the defending team it will lessen the advantage of the massive kicks for touch.

 

[The Engineers Room]

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.

I just said that two posts above. But at least I am not alone in my opinion.