The Virtual Terrace • Moving off the mark
This is a major issue for me at the moment and probably the biggest reason the sport in this country is unrecognisable compared to the NRL. If anyone watched the State of Origin first half this week, you could see how play the balls are meant to be in Rugby League. If the ball carrier wins the collision and has momentum, the get off quickly. if the defenders are dominant they are allowed longer to get off. In neither of those two possible outcomes does the ball carrier move from where he stood up. They stop, play the ball in that order. The markers get square and don't hold the ball, push the ball carrier or worry about defending their line when the ball is dead.
In Super League, a few clubs are coaching their players to do this at every opportunity. Wigan, as ever with any innovation in bending the rules, started it but Warrington, Leigh and Cas also do it an awful lot. I've watched the Saints v Wigan derby a couple of times and it's happening all the time in that game, Liam Farrell can't resist it, to the point where a couple of times he goes past the markers and plays the ball, then complains about their not being square. For balance there are a couple that did it for Saints too, Alex Walmsley is one. The referee's and the clubs needs to get together and agree to stamp this out. My preference would be a yellow card for moving off the mark, not just a penalty. It needs to be removed from the game pronto.
Moving to the side of the markers to play the ball is another Wigan tactic that needs removing from the game.
In Super League, a few clubs are coaching their players to do this at every opportunity. Wigan, as ever with any innovation in bending the rules, started it but Warrington, Leigh and Cas also do it an awful lot. I've watched the Saints v Wigan derby a couple of times and it's happening all the time in that game, Liam Farrell can't resist it, to the point where a couple of times he goes past the markers and plays the ball, then complains about their not being square. For balance there are a couple that did it for Saints too, Alex Walmsley is one. The referee's and the clubs needs to get together and agree to stamp this out. My preference would be a yellow card for moving off the mark, not just a penalty. It needs to be removed from the game pronto.
Moving to the side of the markers to play the ball is another Wigan tactic that needs removing from the game.
Statistics: Posted by Saddened! — Fri Jun 02, 2017 8:33 pm — Replies 14 — Views 892