Re: Ball stealing : Fri Jun 14, 2019 5:10 pm  

TheDreadnought wrote:

What frustrates me the most is when it’s incredibly clear yet the referee gives a knock on.

Now, you could eliminate that by saying, if the ball comes free and the defender's hands are near the ball then it's an automatic steal, but that is still open to abuse

Re: Ball stealing : Fri Jun 14, 2019 5:12 pm  

Jake the Peg wrote:

That was a different era. Now we'd have specialist ball stealing coaches and the game would be a shambles. We need 2 refs so 1 can concentrate on the ruck

This.

If you allowed ball stealing now it would completely ruin the game. Every tackle would involve 4 or 5 defenders holding the tackler in place while taking the ball off him.

It wasn’t a issue in the past because most tackles were 1 on 1 or maybe 2 defenders if you’re lucky.

The game is entirely different now and what worked then doesn’t work now.

Re: Ball stealing : Fri Jun 14, 2019 5:47 pm  

Jake the Peg wrote:

Doesn't happen in oz with the 2 refs

But in Aus ball stealing is common and accepted if it is done in a certain way. Two players or more are involved in the tackle, one worms his way into position on the ball and at a pre decided call the other players step away leaving the last man to fight for the ball. Just playing the rules but a bit too much like a Rugby Union Maul.

Re: Ball stealing : Fri Jun 14, 2019 6:29 pm  

Levrier wrote:

But in Aus ball stealing is common and accepted if it is done in a certain way. Two players or more are involved in the tackle, one worms his way into position on the ball and at a pre decided call the other players step away leaving the last man to fight for the ball. Just playing the rules but a bit too much like a Rugby Union Maul.

It's a perfect way of slowing down play, the tacklers peel off slowly (penalty last year) and if you are lucky you come out with the ball, it's a win win for cheaters.

Re: Ball stealing : Fri Jun 14, 2019 7:32 pm  

Our game is littered with this sort of thing.

It’s not just ball steals (and correctly mentioned earlier, players releasing the ball the make it look like it’s been stolen), but it’s all the dark arts: time wasting, moaning at officials, trapping in, pretending to be trapped in, diving, more moaning, feigning injury, moving off the mark, swearing at officials, holding up until “held” is called then taking them to ground after “held”, lying on, hands on the ball, more swearing, getting all shirty about something core to the sport like a tough but fair tackle (some players are such mardarses these days!), more moaning, not forming the scrum properly, no playing the ball properly, more moaning and swearing, cheering opposition knock-ons (bloody pathetic that sort of thing) etc.

For me it’s not the quality of players that separates the NRL from Super League the most. It’s that they don’t have anywhere near the level of petty play that we do that’s the biggest gap between the leagues.

The ruck in our game is an absolute mess!

Which is a shame because when we do actually play rugby, I think our game is more expansive/less robotic than the NRL

Re: Ball stealing : Fri Jun 14, 2019 7:55 pm  

Psychedelic Casual wrote:

Our game is littered with this sort of thing.

It’s not just ball steals (and correctly mentioned earlier, players releasing the ball the make it look like it’s been stolen), but it’s all the dark arts: time wasting, moaning at officials, trapping in, pretending to be trapped in, diving, more moaning, feigning injury, moving off the mark, swearing at officials, holding up until “held” is called then taking them to ground after “held”, lying on, hands on the ball, more swearing, getting all shirty about something core to the sport like a tough but fair tackle (some players are such mardarses these days!), more moaning, not forming the scrum properly, no playing the ball properly, more moaning and swearing, cheering opposition knock-ons (bloody pathetic that sort of thing) etc.

For me it’s not the quality of players that separates the NRL from Super League the most. It’s that they don’t have anywhere near the level of petty play that we do that’s the biggest gap between the leagues.

The ruck in our game is an absolute mess!

Which is a shame because when we do actually play rugby, I think our game is more expansive/less robotic than the NRL

NRL has evolved. Its become a much more expansive the last couple of years.

You are right though the ruck in SL is a disgrace.

Re: Ball stealing : Sat Jun 15, 2019 8:26 am  

Jake the Peg wrote:

That was a different era. Now we'd have specialist ball stealing coaches and the game would be a shambles. We need 2 refs so 1 can concentrate on the ruck

Not sure I agree but do agree that a second ref would help as long as they apply all the rules, I watched the Leeds game last night there was only a couple of times a player actually played the ball correctly, both sides moved off the mark to play the ball. I would like to see ex players take up the whistle as they should know all the dark arts & what to look for.

Re: Ball stealing : Sun Jun 16, 2019 8:29 am  

Warrington tried to cheat and deceive the official on their last play yesterday . However the official spotted this and called a knock on .

Re: Ball stealing : Sun Jun 16, 2019 9:04 am  

Beverley red wrote:

Not sure I agree

Every team in sl spend time on practicing to push the rules to the limit. Allowing ball steals would ruin the game as a spectacle

Re: Ball stealing : Sun Jun 16, 2019 9:26 am  

One could argue the spectacle is already ruined.