NRL’s rules are a legal quagmire
Roar Pro By PuntPal, 13 Aug 2012 PuntPal is a Roar Pro
- Tagged:
- National Rugby League, NRL, nrl referees, Rugby League
The NRL rules are like any codified legal system. Although I don’t want to bore readers with a legal diatribe about what makes good law, some basic analysis of legal principles is vital to understand what is so wrong with the NRL Rules.
Fundamentally, there are three legal principles that highlight where the NRL rules fail dismally:
1). Publication of the laws.
2). Ability to challenge the enforcement of the laws.
3). Clarity of the laws.
Problem 1: Publication of the laws
Firstly, a common legal principle is that the laws should be known. You cannot follow laws that you are unaware of. As a rugby league fan that is angry with the constant barrage of bad refereeing decisions, I decided to read the rule book to make sure I understood the more contentious rules in the NRL.
Although the players may be given a good lesson in the rules, your average fan does not know the finer interpretational issues – despite what they slur in the stands after a few too many beers.
But there is a problem with finding the rules – it’s nearly impossible!
Maybe some of you have been given a copy of them for your refereeing course or maybe some of you are NRL insiders, but for your average NRL fan (club member!) that turns up each week to watch their team play, the rules are just a mythical and mysterious document that no-one has ever actually seen.
I looked on Google, NRL.com and a host of other forums and website related to the NRL. Everyone swears they have a PDF somewhere – but I still haven’t seen it and cannot find it.
Solution:
In this day and age, the NRL Rules 2012 should be made clearly available on NRL.com. The referee boss, when defending their referees against criticisms should be able to refer to the specific provision of the rule book that justifies the decision made.
Diehard fans should be able to have a copy of the rules sitting on their book shelf and able to pull it out whenever there is a moment like in Game 1 of Origin this year (Inglis’ dubious try).
Instead, we are given snippets of the rules and key changes to the rules. But give me a copy of the damn rule book…please!
Problem 2: Ability to challenge the enforcement of the laws
If you are charged with an offence in Australia, you afforded various legal rights to ensure you are not the victim of an injustice. These checks and balances are not perfect, but the concept is admirable. Not so with the application of the NRL rules. The players are faced with nothing short of a tyranny, with the NRL referees playing the role of a whistle blowing dictator.
The closest thing the players can do to challenge a ruling is to complain to the referee whilst on the run during the game.
There is no clear system for this process, with the referee deciding when he should hear a complaint and when he should dismiss a complaint. As a result, the referees are ridiculously inconsistent in their willingness to discuss their decisions with certain players.
A player like Cam Smith is sometimes able to engage in a 30 second discussion, whereas a stand in captain will often be told to go away like he is a whining 10-year-old child.
This actually affects the application of the rules. Some referee are easily swayed and a player like Cam Smith can occasionally influence the referee into giving his team slack in a certain area of the game
As for coaches, they are not allowed to say certain things at press conferences and if they do bring the integrity of the referee into question, they run the risk of being fined $10,000.
Fans – don’t even start… the best we can do is boo at the top of our lungs and feel as if occasionally, we might have pressured the ref to blow their whistle in our team’s favour!
Solution:
Bring in the challenge system. I know it has been said before but for some reason it is never trialled. Not even in a “trial” match!
The mechanics of a challenge system would be up for debate, but a basic system where each team are allowed three unsuccessful challenges to a decision a game. If your challenge is successful, you do not lose that challenge.
The challenge can only be used by the nominated captain of each team and can only be used when there is a stoppage in play (scrum, penalty, try or ball goes out).
It seems we are so concerned with not adopting the NFL style approach to refereeing, that we have failed to adopt this sensible policy. The reason this policy is sensible is that 9 times out of 10, when there is a bad call, the players on the spot know what the right call is and a challenge system would sort out theatrics and milking that goes on. It would also lessen the need to go to the video ref and, ironically, it would speed up the game.
It will happen, mark my words. The sooner we embrace the challenge system, the better!
Problem 3: Clarity of the laws
A good law is clear and easy to follow. There is no room for argument. You either broke it or you didn’t. The speed limit is a good example. If you are going 90km in an 80km zone, it may annoy you to get fined – but really, you broke the law and should pay the consequences.
The worst NRL rules are the ones where the application of the rule is unclear that the outcome is destined to be inconsistent. There are numerous examples of this (double movement, striping rule etc…) but one area of the laws of the game in desperate need for reform is forward pass rule.
With the flat pass now the attacking weapon of choice for many teams, this rule is being pushed to the limit and sadly, the rules of the game are useless.
I don’t have the actual wording of the forward pass rule (as it is not made easily available to use mere mortals – as discussed above), but the commentators have explained that as long as “the ball leaves the hand backwards, it is allowed to float forward”.
The rationale behind this law being brought into affect is clear enough and sensible at face value. There may be occasions where the momentum of the passing player or the wind means that a pass that left the players hands backwards, ends up drifting forwards to the receiver. On these occasions, the pass is deemed not be a forward pass.
Although the intention of this rule is clear, the application of the rule has proven extremely problematic. The application of the rule is actually so difficult that it has been deemed impossible for video referees to rule on a forward pass.
That in itself should show people what is wrong. If a video replay is unable to show if a pass went backwards, then what chance do our inept touch judges stand? If a rule is that hard to accurately enforce, then it is a dud rule and must be changed (regardless of the admirable intent).
Solution:
The rule should be simplified so that it can be challenged. Basically, the rule should be that the pass must be received behind where the passer of the ball released their pass.
Therefore, if an attacking player passes the ball on the 10m line and it is received by their team mate 9m out, then it is a forward pass as it has gone forward by a metre. Who cares if it was the wind, or momentum or the fairy godmother that made the ball travel forward.
A forward pass should be determined by inserting a digital line parallel to the try line. If the ball travels flat or backwards in relation to this line, then it is ok, if it drifts forward compared to that line – too bad, it is deemed a forward pass.
The players would simply react to this and make sure the receiver is not in front of where the ball was passed from. This would result in deeper play and perhaps less tries. But the rule would be a lot easier to enforce and would be challengeable. A clear law is a good law!
Summary:
I know the above thoughts will be bitterly opposed by many. But the problems of the NRL rules and their application are ruining the game. It is very likely a Grand Final will be decided by a poor refereeing decision.
We cannot expect perfection and there always be bad calls. But the best we can do is make sure we have a system of rules that is well known by all involved in the game, can be challenged on rare occasions by the players that are in a position to know what actually occurred and where the rules are able to be applied consistently.
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August 13th 2012 @ 7:07am
Nafe said | August 13th 2012 @ 7:07am | Report comment
I agree with all of the above. I have searched for the NRL rules numerous times and have only come up with the International Rules which differ significantly.
Also agree with the challenge and forward pass rules. It either goes forward or not. Let’s remove the grey areas. There is already a rule for passes that float forward, and that’s a scrum
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August 13th 2012 @ 7:07am
Ask said | August 13th 2012 @ 7:07am | Report comment
This is on NRL.com but it is 2010 edition.
http://admin.nrl.sportal.net.au/site/_content/document/00000855-source.pdf
August 13th 2012 @ 7:20am
Ask said | August 13th 2012 @ 7:20am | Report comment
Rugby League is a simple game, by allowing ambiguity into the rules it becomes unnecessarily complicated. My biggest bugbear with video ref is it should be able to rule on everything or nothing, a pass is forward or its not.
August 13th 2012 @ 7:09am
oikee said | August 13th 2012 @ 7:09am | Report comment
Mate, they are a complete dogs breakfast. Every week you hear the call from me to get someone to rewrite the rules. This should have been the New Commissions first job. Instead they have allowed some fool to tinker with the rules, the result, a complete dogs breakfast in the Origin game with Inglis scoring off a knock-on.
It almost happened again yesterday in the Panthers game, a ball dislodged in the tackle, went forward 20 metres and we had the ref send it to the video ref to have a look and see if the tackling player dislodged the ball. ???
Come-on, no wonder the fans and coaches are screaming blue murder at the refs, and the video ref having to make these dud calls, thank goodness the video ref just sent back no try. This guy was Paul Mellor, a ex player, he knew straight off it was a dogs breakfast, the ball travelled forward, so he did what should be done, no try, no play on, the ball has gone forward in a knock-on motion. If the ball gets dislodged and goes Forward, it is a knockon , regardless of who knocked it out or why.
Why is this game trying to shoot itself in the foot all the time. Now we have the super league doing the same thing, in England, and gee it looks very ordinary, with commentators asking weather it was knocked out, ? Who Cares, the ball has still gone forward, have a scrum if you have to, but dont play on, and stop sending it to the video ref so he can look at the dogs breakfast 10 times while i swear and then throw the TV out the window, i am running out of TV’s.
It is unprofessional, do these fools know what that means, unprofessional. Maybe they dont, here, “Dogs Breakfast”, now they understand. Complete mess.
These people have no idea how amatuer our game looks going to a video ref to look at a knock-on, and then to allow play to go on, or call a try. No wonder people turn off, the fans are getting tired mate, very tired of this game, trust me.
The obstruction rule, a simple rule to fix, no running behind your player, is that really that hard to fix. Just blow the whistle, no big deal. Everyone knows you cant do this, so fix the rule, blow the whistle, dont even take it to the video ref, and like you said, if it did happen, the coach if we had this call could protest.
Anyhow, again, i have been calling for a rule cleanup now for 6 months, we have not done this with the introduction of the video refs, this should have been done because it is a game changer having video refs, yet we forgot to update our rules.
It is getting to a stage where i am very scared of even see a result go to the video ref. You might as well toss a coin, or, whatever you see, just go the opposite, this is normally what happens. They must be looking at a different game.
I still cant believe Hamstead is running loose, it is like a Hollywood Harrigon joke, someone has got to stop Harrigon, he is out of control, who, who can sack him, no one, untouchable.
August 13th 2012 @ 7:21am
steve b said | August 13th 2012 @ 7:21am | Report comment
Good read PuntPal you make some good points ,,yes their is a few rules i would love to see changed ,one being the forward pass they can never get this one right while ever their is so many interpretations , if the ball goes forward it should be ruled forward ,,i don’t care if he was trying to throw it backwards ,, it it goes forward in front of the player who passed the ball its forward ,keep it bloody simple ..And what about the strip rule This one is the biggest joke of all ,,you see three blokes in the tackle one has his big paw on the ball strips it ,and the ref says you didn’t have proper control of the ball ,,sorry ..If they haven’t seen it clearly why not go upstairs because all the fans get to see what really happened because the callers ask for a replay .How many times this year have they got this one wrong ! And whats an obstruction ,and the shepherd ,and what part of ten is ten ,,and and and… Y es they really need to have a long look at the rules and the way refs are going because its a shambles at the moment and no one seems to be listening in the new commish ,,,by the way where they are they ever going to do anything ….
August 13th 2012 @ 1:42pm
PuntPal said | August 13th 2012 @ 1:42pm | Report comment
Thanks Steve
Yeah you have identified my main gripes as well – striping rule, getting back the 10….
All of these rules need to be designed with simplicty in mind. No grey areas, no interpretation based on so called ‘common-sense’
That was why I compared the NRL rules to the Legal system we live by. Imagine not knowing whether you were committing a crime or not…it would be impossible to function. That is how the players and coaches feel at the moment – they cant plan their strategy because one weeks something is being policed by the refs and so it is a penalty
Even if the outcome of the rules is not what we want (i.e. I agree that our preferred forward pass rule would limit the ability for some long cut outs) that is the price we have to pay to have consistency.
August 13th 2012 @ 7:26am
soapit said | August 13th 2012 @ 7:26am | Report comment
had me until the forward pass bit. it would make it simpler to check afterwards but much more difficult for the players to make sure they complied. theyd need to stand an extra metre or two back depending on how fast the player was running and theyd have to guess how far on the run. and then that extra metre or two would make it much much easier to defend so you’d see less and less tries.
August 13th 2012 @ 4:21pm
oikee said | August 13th 2012 @ 4:21pm | Report comment
It is not just the rules, the whole game needs to either change or be left behind. This report has come from the business world.
The National Rugby League has got to work out weather the game wants to keep being Amatuer or Professional. The game is a business, lets make that perfectly clear.
At the moment it is amatuer. Look at the rules, look at the refs, even the TV screens, all amatuer.
You also have to question the Salary Cap, it is keeping the game amatuer, so until this mess is looked at, the game will always be just a amatuer Sydney comp.
If you run a business and bring through young people, train them up, spend time effort and money on these young future executives, only to have them stripped from you, that is not a business. And it never will be a business, i have never seen any business run in this manner..
The NRL, has to make a decision, do they want to stay amatuer, or do they want to become professional.
At the moment, their are only 2 professional comps in Australia top 5-6 comps.
Rugby union and Soccer. The AFL can never be while they have a draft. Yes it will even the game out as it needs to be, but they can never be seen as professional while they minipulate the game.
As long as clubs like the Broncos and even the Storm and Warriors, as long as they can bring juniors through and have them taken away by other clubs without any reward, this game will continue to be amatuer, and nothing will convince me or the business world otherwise. Why spend the time effort on juniors to not see any reward, you might as well join the mob and just buy players and juniors from other clubs.
The game will continue to be amatuer while the bigger city clubs are propping up the weaker Sydney teams.
You will never get Brisbane Perth or New Zealand supporting Sydney clubs, so while these clubs continue to be weak and stripped of players and juniors at no cost, only expense in bringing the juniors through, time effort and money, people will continue to see through the code, see the amatuer side to the running of the game and leave enmass.
The game going to the video ref to replay knock-on anfter knock-on is just a glimpse of the amatuer nature of the game. The torso rule is another, the forward pass, the obstruction rule, all flawed.
Effort cant go without reward, at the moment it seems to me that buying players is a better option than bringing juniors through, and this became obvious once Lockyer retired.
Clubs grow stronger stripping juniors from clubs while the Broncos will stay weak, and the game will stay Amatuer because less and less will support a amatuer comp. This not only applies to the Broncos, same could be said of Penrith Parra, even the Warriors.
Probably Melbourne Storm and Perth if things dont change, it has to change, as i said, the game cant become professional under this salary cap guise, strong clubs with large juniors can never proper under this system.
This system is designed to keep certain Sydney clubs strong, that is all, and the code will never grow outside this setup because people wont support this, i know i wont.
Clive Palmer wont, Tony Sage wont. If these guys throw their support behind other codes, this amatuer code we call league only has itself to blame.
It all comes down to this single argument,
Does the Code Want to Stay Amatuer or become Professional.
I have asked the question, i think others should do the same.
August 13th 2012 @ 7:33am
Matt said | August 13th 2012 @ 7:33am | Report comment
Nah the forward pass can’t just be forward. I’ve thrown many backward passes and due to spin on the ball and wind have done a banana shaped flight path and ended forward. 5-10m passes mind you, not a 2m pass or anything.
August 13th 2012 @ 7:45am
steve b said | August 13th 2012 @ 7:45am | Report comment
Ok Matt if its blowing 30 knots behind you and it drifts forward then you would have a point ,but when the ball is called flat of the dummy half ,and it was clearly forward ,,this is one area the can’t seem to get close to right ,yes mate their are going to be exeptions but some decisions of late have been shockers …
August 13th 2012 @ 8:00am
Matt said | August 13th 2012 @ 8:00am | Report comment
Wind doesn’t have to be strong. The passes need to be long to get affected by the spin and wind, a 1-2m pass won’t be affected at all. However, these are covered by the current rules. I would LOVE to see a video of the hands going back yet the ball going forward from a small dummy half pass, can’t happen. It’s just poor officiating (those damn touchies again).
August 13th 2012 @ 10:39am
Pat Chomsky said | August 13th 2012 @ 10:39am | Report comment
If the ball goes forward it is forward. No one believes in your magic backward forward passes.
Whistle blow!
Forward pass.
One thing I would like to see is a penalty for offside being blown when the recipient is in front of the ball passer, when the pass is thrown.
“Sorry Cam Smith, you threw the ball forward to a man in an offside position. Penalty. No stfu and get back your ten.”
August 13th 2012 @ 10:56am
Nafe said | August 13th 2012 @ 10:56am | Report comment
Perfectly worded
August 13th 2012 @ 12:58pm
Matt said | August 13th 2012 @ 12:58pm | Report comment
No-one except physics. And reality.
If you throw a ball backwards it doesn’t matter where the player is, it’s not like you gain any advantage. Yet another rule to try and enforce for no reason.
August 13th 2012 @ 7:59am
eagleJack said | August 13th 2012 @ 7:59am | Report comment
Unfortunately if they were to introduce your forward pass rule then long cut-out passes to wingers would go the way of the dodo.
It is simple physics. If a player throws the ball backwards and it leaves his hands slower than the speed at which he is running, then the ball will move forward in the direction the passer was running. Imagine throwing a tennis ball, egg, apple, whatever, from a moving car at a signpost on the side of the road. You release the object in line with the signpost but invariably the object will land several metres in front of the signpost in the direction the car was moving.
In order for players moving at speed to hit their winger without it moving forward, they would have to contort their bodies to such an angle that it would just be a facet of the game that would no longer happen.
August 13th 2012 @ 8:25am
steve b said | August 13th 2012 @ 8:25am | Report comment
eaglejack yes mate i agree ,,their are going to be exeptions to the rule ,yes it would be near impossible to do ,but what i think what author is on about is the blatent forward pass that both touchies and refs miss …
August 13th 2012 @ 8:49am
eagleJack said | August 13th 2012 @ 8:49am | Report comment
Not sure steve b he does say “Who cares if it was the wind, or momentum or the fairy godmother that made the ball travel forward”.
But I agree. Forward passes from dummy half are a blight on the game. No momentum involved there.
Do we need 4 touchies? One controlling each half. That way there is always somebody in line with the play. So often you see the touchie struggling to keep up with the play, once it has moved downfield.
August 13th 2012 @ 9:04am
steve b said | August 13th 2012 @ 9:04am | Report comment
eaglejack a good friend who is a ref reckons this is what he would like to see 4 touchies,,, using the up and comers to the ref ranks ,,he thinks it would give them big game experience and says their would be more than enough to put their hand up for the opportunity…
August 13th 2012 @ 11:18am
soapit said | August 13th 2012 @ 11:18am | Report comment
yeah the ones from dummy half are completely simple to police as well because theres no momentum, so it does just come down to whether the balls caught in front of cam smith/the offender.
August 15th 2012 @ 11:42am
Noel said | August 15th 2012 @ 11:42am | Report comment
Yes these are a real worry as there are probably half a dozen or so in every march , reason – referees are not in a position to make the call , and the TV camera is usually focused on the play the ball thus we all see it . Why are the referees not in a position to see the pass , because they are told to stay out of the area as they may interfere with the play . Touchjudges are called on to make the calls , not a job they should be doing .
August 13th 2012 @ 1:38pm
PuntPal said | August 13th 2012 @ 1:38pm | Report comment
I am not so sure that requiring passes to not drift forward would mean cut out passes would go away from the game. The recieving player just needs to stand deeper and the thrower needs to factor in the drift forward.
How many wingers no stand so flat compared to their centres. The Manly winger on Friday nigth ruined a try because he was so far in front of his centre. These guys are now compensating for the silly rule and expecting to catch is 1/2 metre in front of it where it was thrown.
The fact that a ball spins and goes forward, or the wind catches longer balls, etc….all that in my opinion is just too bad – adjust your game. We need a rule for forward passes that can be enforced with more consistency and a POINT A to POINT B approach is the only rule I can see that achieves this
August 13th 2012 @ 8:04am
mike from tari said | August 13th 2012 @ 8:04am | Report comment
When my son played in the Juniors the parents received a rule book every time the kids went from Mini, Mod & international rules from the Qld Junior Rugby League so someone must have a copy of the rules, it seems to me it is the interpretation of the rules which are the problem, like in the tackle, the tackler is to roll off to the side of the tackled player, never see this policed as when they get off they still are pushing the tackled player to the ground. The forward pass is simple, ” grid the field” then its easier to see the forward passess.
Going back to the interpretation of the rules Hollywood Bill seems to have the inside running on this.
August 13th 2012 @ 8:04am
Dogs Of War said | August 13th 2012 @ 8:04am | Report comment
Rules are very easy to find on the NRL website.
Go to About->Reference Centre->Rules of the game.
Did you even attempt to look, or just made that statement cause you couldn’t be bothered looking.
August 13th 2012 @ 9:23am
Nafe said | August 13th 2012 @ 9:23am | Report comment
Are they the NRL Rules or the ARL International Rules. Because the rules are different and the interpretaions are very different
August 13th 2012 @ 3:37pm
Curious said | August 13th 2012 @ 3:37pm | Report comment
Dogs Of War, thanks, you quoted “Rules are very easy to find on the NRL website – Go to About->Reference Centre->Rules of the game” End quote, and they are BUT Sorry D.O.W. the correct search avenue is under “Laws of the Game” not Rules; and it’s the latest, I guess, listed as OFFICIAL FEBRUARY 2012.
The rest of us enjoy the read of the latest edition.
August 13th 2012 @ 10:53pm
PuntPal said | August 13th 2012 @ 10:53pm | Report comment
Is that really very easy to find??? Why would it not have a link ‘Rules of the Game’, or a big tab…dont think its fair to say it is ‘very easy to find’. I asked numerous of people to look and they couldnt find it either.
What about the meta data on this link when you do google search? I could find anything on the net in under 1 min if it is well placed…the NRL rules arenot well placed. And yes I did look , I clearly said that in the article if you can read.
August 13th 2012 @ 11:35pm
Dogs Of War said | August 13th 2012 @ 11:35pm | Report comment
It took me 1 minute after I read your article to find it on nrl.com. It’s not buried deep within the site or anything, and seems quite logical to be grouped with all the other elements around it.
Not sure why the rules would have their own button on the site, given that most people couldn’t be bothered ever reading them, and the other options they have are way more attractive/popular items for people to select.
As for the Google search, it’s really something you should point out to the NRL, they have a contact us button on the site (I am sure you can find that), I did the same searches for “Rules of AFL” and “Rules of NFL” and both first links were to the official rules of the game, on the official site, which the NRL search wasn’t anywhere on the first page.
Though I did like the concept of supplying them with all season memberships.
August 13th 2012 @ 9:00am
Lovey said | August 13th 2012 @ 9:00am | Report comment
I agree with your idea about forward passes. I have sometimes not been convinced with commentator’s saying a long ball was thrown backward but floated forward. Usually a passer is not going with any speed when these are thrown. Also they have to throw it with force, backwards, which would overcome some of this motion. It is not like dropping something out of a speeding car. Somebody should do a test of this, and post the videos, would be interesting.
August 13th 2012 @ 11:36am
soapit said | August 13th 2012 @ 11:36am | Report comment
http://www.rugbydump.com/2011/10/2204/what-is-a-forward-pass
theres a good video here. its a rugby union site but the physics are the same.
and ignore the comments section. most of them are arguing as a result of the ambiguous way the rule is stated in the official rulebook union whereas i recall it being stated much clearer in the league version.
August 13th 2012 @ 2:35pm
Lovey said | August 13th 2012 @ 2:35pm | Report comment
Thanks, that is perfect. Commonsense says a flat pass is not forward if it does not end up ahead of where the thrower would have been if he maintained his motion. However it has occasionally seemed to me that the passer has been crabbing sideways when throwing a long pass which has ended up ahead. But I agree now, no need for a rule change. Leave it to the refs.
August 13th 2012 @ 8:39pm
soapit said | August 13th 2012 @ 8:39pm | Report comment
yes that crabbing sideways (or even moving backwards sometimes) happens often. hopefully soon the technology will develop soon to allow them to at least catch the definitely forward ones.