NRL blocks obstruction rethink
By Steve Jancetic
19:14 AEST Mon May 11 2009
The NRL will not revisit the obstruction rule before the end of the season if at all despite another weekend of controversial rulings and referee condemnations.
Chief operating officer Graham Annesley said there was no scope to alter the rule mid-season despite the men in the middle and in the referees box coming under attack from coaches and players alike over the weekend.
The obstruction call reared its ugly head in Australia's easy Test win over New Zealand on Friday night while Gold Coast coach John Cartwright and Brisbane's Ivan Henjak were both left scratching their heads after controversial try and no-try rulings.
Referees boss Robert Finch backed the decisions which cost the Titans and Broncos possible wins, while Annesley said a desire for consistency meant there would be no tinkering with the obstruction rule in the short term.
"Their intention when they first put these guidelines in place was to make it more consistent and that's the one things that we hear over and over and over again from everybody in the game, that we want to see more consistency," Annesley said.
"The other thing that they set out to do was prevent the game from completely going the other way where you have decoy runners interfering with defence which is not the nature of our game.
"The alternative if you go the other way, then you open up the opportunity for masses of decoy runners and then you have people complaining about why aren't things being penalised."
Australian skipper Darren Lockyer claimed defenders were being rewarded for making bad defensive plays after Kiwis winger Manu Vatuvei came off his wing to tackle Justin Hodges with Billy Slater slipping down the exposed wing to score.
Kangaroos coach Tim Sheens also declared it should have been a try, showing just how far the confusion had reached considering he had brief on the play by Finch only hours earlier.
"I'd spoken to both coaches about that exact same play at a 1pm meeting with the referee on the day," Finch said.
"We've been interpreting it that way for three to four years, we've pulled up tries on that for a number of years now and we'll continue to do so."
Asked if he could understand players frustrations over the rule, Finch said:
"No I can't. This was discussed again at the end of last year where over 90 per cent of stakeholders - which are coaches, players, media and former administrators - agreed that the current interpretation of the obstruction remain."
Finch was adamant Cartwright had nothing to complain about despite the Titans coach being livid after being robbed of tries to Chris Walker and William Zillman in his side's 23-18 loss to Newcastle on Sunday.
Walker appeared to get his finger to a rolling ball for what he claimed was a try while Zillman was denied after skipper Scott Prince had interfered with the marker after playing the ball, Zillman then diving over from short range.
"There are two interpretations for grounding the ball - one's from a kick and one's in possession, and he's (Cartwright) used the one for when a player's in possession, not from a kick," Finch said of the Walker no-try.
"When it's a kick he needs to have downward pressure on the ball and clearly there was no downward pressure on that football, it was a correct decision.
"The other one's a no-brainer."
Cartwright escaped sanction from the NRL for his post-game comments when he claimed "the inconsistencies in that game were as bad as I've ever seen, (for) both sides."
