Amendments to 2019 referee policy : Tue Apr 23, 2019 4:53 pm  

The following additions / amendments to 2019 referee policy have been introduced with immediate effect: https://www.rugby-league.com/article/54770/amendments-to--referee-policy

The following additions / amendments to 2019 referee policy have been introduced with immediate effect: https://www.rugby-league.com/article/54770/amendments-to--referee-policy

Re: Amendments to 2019 referee policy : Tue Apr 23, 2019 4:58 pm  

Pathetic from the games controllers. There was no need for this, the useless officials simply had to enforce and interpret the rules correctly that were already in place.

They are incapable, and too many times now they have been shown up because of it. Instead of taking them to task, we now make it look like something new in place.

Glad to see no hiding from it now though, and let’s hope it sorts out this pathetic rubbish from the game.

They should have made a load of other announcements though to cover up the other areas the refs can’t manage.

Re: Amendments to 2019 referee policy : Tue Apr 23, 2019 6:08 pm  

I think it's a positive move to rule out loop hole exploitation of current rules and unsportsman like conduct. Maybe its late coming but hats off to them for addressing it reasonably quickly

Re: Amendments to 2019 referee policy : Tue Apr 23, 2019 6:23 pm  

Excellent news. Hate to see teams cheat to earn a penalty like we did yesterday. Catalan player also did it when he played ball at 50mph to make it hit Moors when he had no way of clearing ruck in time. Hopefully refs get this right match day now and teams don't still get away with it.

Re: Amendments to 2019 referee policy : Tue Apr 23, 2019 8:09 pm  

Good to see the RFL have finally taken a stance on this act of blatant cheating, It’s been a while coming.

The NRL stamped it out .

I just hope the match officials are consistent with this ruling .

Re: Amendments to 2019 referee policy : Tue Apr 23, 2019 9:39 pm  

Good to see, just 10 rounds too late. Anyway, that's Catalans whole gameplan shafted.

[Chris71]

Re: Amendments to 2019 referee policy : Wed Apr 24, 2019 7:24 am  

Not sure I have the faith in the Ganson or officials to sort it out. It’s been bloody obvious that stepping over a defending player trapping them with no way of clearing the ruck & playing the ball with undoubted intent of hitting the denfending players who have been unable to clear the ruck to gain the penalty was wrong. Yet the officials continued to carry on the farce instead of either penalising the ball carrier for doing it or simply making them play it again properly. The players also need to take a share of the responsibility of turning it into a cheat fest though it should never have got to this if Ganson and his crew had a grasp of things.

As Gallanteer has said its 10 games too late.

Re: Amendments to 2019 referee policy : Wed Apr 24, 2019 7:33 am  

As said above, we just need the officials (including the linesmen!!!) to enforce it properly. Anyhow, Kruise Leeming's buggered.

Re: Amendments to 2019 referee policy : Wed Apr 24, 2019 7:37 am  

Gallanteer wrote:

Good to see, just 10 rounds too late. Anyway, that's Catalans whole gameplan shafted.

Catalan will have a plan B where they will have 3 tacklers lying behind each other in a line so that the PTB has to be played 3 metres back, maybe they should have had the clearance of the ruck to the side and the defenders on the ground stay out of play completely until the ball is cleared.

Re: Amendments to 2019 referee policy : Wed Apr 24, 2019 6:50 pm  

Gotcha wrote:

Pathetic from the games controllers. There was no need for this, the useless officials simply had to enforce and interpret the rules correctly that were already in place.

Agreed. I asked ex-ref Ian Smith a while ago on Twitter why the actual law as its written regarding the tackle and the play the ball isnt enforced and he replied “I think you either have a very old rule book or there is an amendment somewhere so there isn’t a cost to have to re write the whole law book.” and “Every season there is a policy document and the one about placing the ball rather than dropping it will have been on a policy document before I even started refin.”

So it looks to me like they amend the laws in a policy document every year to save from re-writing them and to speed the game up. All they needed to do here was enforce the law as its written with a little bit of common sense. But no, they have to make a big song and dance about it as usual because theyve let it get so messy. Whats the point in having laws if you are going to allow something completely different.

The law actually states the ball can be dropped or placed on the ground at the PTB, but we all know what happens when its dropped.