No seen this mentioned elsewhere, but it’s been agreed there will be a clampdown on the play the ball - essentially, defenders must clear the ruck, attackers must regain feet, place the ball on the ground and make a genuine attempt to play it with the foot.

Also, 21 man squads announced 2 days before the game, any players brought into the 17 outside of that 21 will see the team lose an interchange.

All make perfect sense to me, particularly the play the ball. Glad to see no gimmicks.

They can make all the rule changes they want, until the officials get better nothing will change.

Having seen the Wigan v Leeds friendly I have to ask "when does that start"?

Should make the game look tidier but whether it'll make a material difference, I'm not sure.

Play the ball rule changes haven't gone far enough from what I've read. The main problem with the play the ball isn't the ball carrier playing it too quickly and not attempting to touch it with his foot, or the defender staying in the ruck or clamping the ball to prevent a quick PTB. The biggest problem with it is the ball carrier moving forwards. There are teams in SL who make as many metres after the tackle is completed as they do during it. Some go to extreme lengths, pushing forwards and sidestepping the markers and playing it next to them, making them offside or even behind them. Ref's do nothing usually when this happens, bar being more relaxed about the defenders being square which just makes everything messy.

Didn't we go down this PTB route a few years ago?

Yes, until the rules states the player MUST play the ball with the foot and NOT move off the mark AND the officials enforce it the ptb will remain a mess.

About time something was done about the PTB. Now let's see how strict the refs are?

Last year in the NRL the refs were super hot and then relaxed the rules slightly but still generally players are touching the ball with the foot.

The only way the players will learn is if the refs blow and their needs to be zero tolerance as currently the lack of PTB is ridiculous.

Just following in the shadow of the NRL as usual. Except for having two refs, because that would need actual money being spent.

Even if we went to two refs now we'd just have another inept official involved in each game.

The RFL’s Match Officials Department had been asked to submit recommendations to the Laws Committee regarding the play-the-ball, following discussions through the 2019 season.

The proposal, which was unanimously accepted, stresses the responsibility of the tackled player “to maintain balance and control and make a genuine attempt to make contact on the ball with the foot”.

It is also the tackled player’s responsibility to place the ball on the ground at their feet and not on a defender – and a failure to fulfil any of those requirements (balance, control, placing the ball on the ground and making a genuine attempt to play it with the foot) will be ruled a lost ball (not a penalty), leading to a scrum

The Laws Committee believe a scrum is a more appropriate punishment for this error than a penalty.

The responsibility of defenders is also detailed, in a number of ways, including as follows:

“No tackler should make an adjustment on the tackle or leave hands or body in the play-the-ball area after the tackle is complete. Referees should act on any interference once the tackle has been called”;
Tacklers who ‘clamp’ the ball and keep their hands/arm on the ball when the ball carrier is standing up should be penalised”.

In turn the above has been ratified by the RFL Board.

Taken from the RFL site.
Thank you

Well.... There certainly wasn’t a clamp down on making an attempt with the foot in game 1 of the season.
Wasn’t quite as blatant as last year when you had players with both feet on the floor and just rolling it backwards, but last night, there were 2 or 3 PTB’s every set where the attacker just lifted 1 leg and rolled it back - certainly not genuine attempts to play it.