Bradford Leeds
FC KR
Wigan Saints

I've watched all three of these games and noticed not only the countless amounts of forward passes going unpunished but also the negative tactic of kicking the ball dead on the 5th tackle and making the opposition start on the 20.

1st can the touch judges start earning a living, Cummins sort this shower of sh--e out.

2nd maybe a change of rules so that if it goes over the dead ball line the opposition get the ball from the point it was kicked from.

Thoughts?

hello where the hell have you been for the past 20 years..tha wigan,saints of old have got away with this for years..we see it on sky in games like you mention and think its something knew..true these touich judges should buck there ideas up but will they..NO...momentum rule does`nt help,forward passes are forward however people may dress it up..until the refs and linesmen start getting their fingers out we are stuck with these dubious decisions

I think that you'll find Jamie Foster agrees with you on point 2 YED, his interview in this weeks League Weekly says that it's an annoying and negative tactic and should possibly be replaced with the ball being taken from where the kick was, scrum for the team defending the kick.

Yed, Yed, Yed, Yed, Yed
You speak my language on issue number 2
The most negative thing in our game.
I suggest any kick from outside the 20m line which goes dead, is then restarted by a tap even further up the field than what's currently being played (20m). That'll soon stop this "oooh we're tired, so let's boot the ball dead in goal" cobblers

I think forward passes are worse this season than they have ever been....The touch judges are blantantly ignoring them...

The annoying thing for me is half of the passes are just lazy throws and i think they are being ignored to keep the game flowing even though its annoying for the spectators...

When I read this weeks "LEAGUE WEEKLY" There is a letter from a leeds fan complaining about forward passes. I was tempted to write myself, the only team that comes close to leeds is stains. I have noticed it creeping into our game as well. Lets scrap momentum and FLAT PASS and go back to the ball as to be passed back!

Brent Webb would be out of a job if all forward passes were punished! He can't pass backwards

Kicks over the dead ball line is a good tactic @ the right time. If the team is under pressure, hasn't got field position & needs a rest, a kick from long distance that goes out over the goal line after bouncing is ok. It allows the defence to have a breather & reset.

How about kicks over dead ball line from inside own half ...penalty. Kicks over dead ball line without bounce from 20-halfway penalty, with bounce scrum from kicking point. Kicks over dead ball line from inside 20, tap on 20. Kicks over.............................. Gosh, I seem to be making it so complicated, maybe I should get a job at the RFL.

On the other point, I've often harked back to the days of "proper" rugby and thought if the ball goes forward...its forward! OK, allowing for the momentum rule makes for a faster game but for the spectator its a nightmare...how many people can tell which way the fingers were pointing when a linesman/ref cant and they are far closer to the action.

Agree with this, it would stop the 'negative' use of this kick and perhaps we would see an increase in kicking skills so that it stays in the field of play.

What if we gave a scrum head and feed to attacking side where the ball is kicked? this would make the defensive side try and play the ball rather than allowing it to go dead 'for a rest' and a controlled restart...........too much pressure on the defense?

Thoughts

This is one RU rule that we should copy. There is no skill in just kicking the ball dead. Kevin Sinfield does it on a regular basis. It allows the defence to be set before the 20m tap is taken.

maybe they should allow the quick tap from the 20 to slightly negate this. Saints tried it yesterday and Silverspud pulled them back over it.

It never gets kicked dead in union - those in goals are larger than some european countries !

One possible problem is if this rule is overturned then attacking teams will just kick it into the corners as close to the corner flag as possible to give the defending team a scrum only 5m away from there goal line. Obviously this is more difficult to do than kicking the ball dead but would still make the game more negative.

I do agree with Yed that they should be allowed to quick tap, this is where you would see speed demons at there best.

The problem with the "quick tap" is that most of them get called back because the refs are too slow "to get into position". Unless you improve the refs speed they will still get called back.

I agree about kicking the ball dead. I would suggest an even simpler solution - rather than on the 20, let the tap be taken from the 30. That's a pretty decent attacking platform.

Unless the attacking team is within the 20, otherwise it would eliminate a grubber on the 5th

Ball goes dead in goal when kicked within the 20 then 20m restart.
Ball goes dead in goal when kicked between the 20 and half way then scrum defence from point where ball kicked.
Ball goes dead in goal from attacking teams own half, or ball goes dead in goal on the full (from anywhere) then penalty defence from the point where ball kicked.

Having thought about this surely a kick that goes dead is punishment for inept fullback play. Saying that such a kick should be punished takes away any responsibility on the defending team to field the ball.