Bit of a rant on my part but it has become clear to me the NRL has reacted to negative aspects of the game with new rules only for the new rules not to apply in the spirit of the rule change to begin with.
The touch in goal kick resulting in a 20m tap and 0 tackle was implemented to deter teams simply kicking the ball out the back of the field to stop a kick return from a skilled ball runner. Now under that rule that very behaviour is the least punished, if a player was to kick from middle of the field and out the back of the in goal, the resulting tap would be delayed as the receiving team would not be able to get players back onside quickly enough. The result is a tap and run into a set defence.
Now if an attacking team takes a kick from 10 out and it finds touch in goal, there is then a quick tap against them, that tap is often taken against broken defensive line of players struggling to get back onside.
We need to differentiate somehow to make the rule work as intended, maybe a kick from 40 or more out results in a tap with no offside for the receiving team or a kick from inside same range does not result in 0 tackle and sees some small frame time for the kicking team to get onside before the tap. FWIW I’m all for caught on the full in goal to always result in 0 tackle and quick tap regardless of where it was kicked from.
Other rule that imo is broken but not as badly is the shoulder charge, rule was brought in to stop the big hit where are player charges in shoulder first with the intent of big impact, entertaining part of our game but too many went too high with the shoulder or saw a head clash result. To me the slater shoulder and Duftys last night(as well as the regular Thurston shoulders that went unpunished) should not be stamped out by this crackdown, running almost same direction and in an effort to push a player out, the risk of head injury is far less than the violent type of shoulder charge the rules set to eradicate. We allow players to shoulder others out of the way while chasing a kick so surely the shoulder can also be used for the purpose of bumping a player out of bounds. In the case of the Dufty example a legs tackle would have no chance of stopping the try and the only other alternative would be diving at the player, with a high possibility of head colliding with the ball runners hip or elbow. Would be tough to word the rules I believe they could find a way to make an exemption.
The touch in goal kick resulting in a 20m tap and 0 tackle was implemented to deter teams simply kicking the ball out the back of the field to stop a kick return from a skilled ball runner. Now under that rule that very behaviour is the least punished, if a player was to kick from middle of the field and out the back of the in goal, the resulting tap would be delayed as the receiving team would not be able to get players back onside quickly enough. The result is a tap and run into a set defence.
Now if an attacking team takes a kick from 10 out and it finds touch in goal, there is then a quick tap against them, that tap is often taken against broken defensive line of players struggling to get back onside.
We need to differentiate somehow to make the rule work as intended, maybe a kick from 40 or more out results in a tap with no offside for the receiving team or a kick from inside same range does not result in 0 tackle and sees some small frame time for the kicking team to get onside before the tap. FWIW I’m all for caught on the full in goal to always result in 0 tackle and quick tap regardless of where it was kicked from.
Other rule that imo is broken but not as badly is the shoulder charge, rule was brought in to stop the big hit where are player charges in shoulder first with the intent of big impact, entertaining part of our game but too many went too high with the shoulder or saw a head clash result. To me the slater shoulder and Duftys last night(as well as the regular Thurston shoulders that went unpunished) should not be stamped out by this crackdown, running almost same direction and in an effort to push a player out, the risk of head injury is far less than the violent type of shoulder charge the rules set to eradicate. We allow players to shoulder others out of the way while chasing a kick so surely the shoulder can also be used for the purpose of bumping a player out of bounds. In the case of the Dufty example a legs tackle would have no chance of stopping the try and the only other alternative would be diving at the player, with a high possibility of head colliding with the ball runners hip or elbow. Would be tough to word the rules I believe they could find a way to make an exemption.
