Jemmo wrote:
The problem with the stripping rule comes along because although stripping the ball two on one is an offence, the onus is still on the attacking player to attempt to retain possession; meaning there is a difference between a defending player making contact with the ball and it becoming dislodged and a genuine strip. So in every circumstance there is a judgement call to be made from the ref.
The only way we can discourage defenders from putting their hands on the ball in the tackle is to outlaw offloads, and I'm pretty sure we don;t want to do that.
The forward passes are, on occasion ridiculous though and I direct your attention to the one Rochdale got away with in the second half on Sunday
One problem is that attackers can deliberately drop a ball to gain a penalty ... it's rare though and a risky form of cheating.
The onus is for an attacker to hold the ball firmly (hence the loose carry rule), but when players are in a heap on the floor the ball is often being deliberately dislodged, and if not, a hand is on it to prevent a kick restart.
We don't notice it so much in normal untelevised games because of the distances involved, but on TV it's stark.
Take last night's game, Leigh were guilty of this ball stealing, once right in front of the linesman, who did nothing, the video ref said nothing. Batley's manager, Harrison, could only laugh in amazement. This wasn't a sneaky dislodge, there were two in the tackle and one guy just ripped it from the attacker.
I just thought ... stuff it! ... this is madness.
Watch sides like Wigan for the fiddling about that goes on, it's an art form.
The answer is not to wash our hands of it and accept it or to change rules necessarily, it's to bloody watch what's going on properly in the tackle. It won't stamp it out, but it would severely reduce it.
Just imagine a game were the sole purpose was to dislodge the ball in every tackle by cheating, the game would be unwatchable.
You are right that each one is a judgment call by the ref, but I get the impression that refs have that much to watch, with scant help from linesmen, that they don't watch properly and when a ball comes free and they have to make a decision, the easy option with least consequence is ....'knock-on'.
