referees vow to clean up the play the ball!

[TheLoneRooster]

Why not define a try solely as being scored with the hands for a start?
As for hollywood harrigan, pfft and go fark yourself.

[supermario]

Why not define a try solely as being scored with the hands for a start?
As for hollywood harrigan, pfft and go fark yourself.

Agreed on both counts !

The Ruling must me that a try is scored by a player when he has one or both hands on the ball and can place the ball on the ground while having control of the ball. The had must be incontact with the ball at all times while in the act of scoring.

[Guest]

What needs to be brought back, which seems to have slipped in 2010, is the player playing the ball taking markers out.

Where they walk off the mark, or after they play the ball they walk forward into the marker. Isn't that essentially taking a defender out of play and pretty much sheparding?

[Headless Chook]

Harrigan was on the radio the other morning and was questioned regarding the grounding of the ball. His reply was that he is happy to look at changing it, however, as its written in the rules, it can't be changed without a meeting of the International Rules Committee.

[TheLoneRooster]

Agreed on both counts !

The ruling must be that a try is scored by a player when he has one or both hands on the ball and can place the ball on the ground while having control of the ball. The hand must be in contact with the ball at all times while in the act of scoring.

Well said Muz and I can't see how hollywood can say the things he does when the way you've described the scoring of a try is straightforward. Any grey areas (such as "having control") can be filled in with common sense.

[Cockadoodledoo]

Well said Muz and I can't see how hollywood can say the things he does when the way you've described the scoring of a try is straightforward. Any grey areas (such as "having control") can be filled in with common sense.

Muz has given his suggestion as to what he thinks the rule should be, that is not what the rule actually is.. I don't like using the word 'control' as it is subjective. I much prefer 'downward pressure'..

[Hawkeye]

Agreed on both counts !

The Ruling must me that a try is scored by a player when he has one or both hands on the ball and can place the ball on the ground while having control of the ball. The had must be incontact with the ball at all times while in the act of scoring.

The only exception to that, would be in the situation of the ball being loose on the ground, and a player merely places a hand on the ball for a try.
In that case, he hasn't had contact with the ball until the point of exerting downward pressure.
Guess you could also argue in this case as to whether the player has had control of the ball, because he has had no contact with the ball until such time as placing downward pressure on the loose ball whether the ball is loose from an opposition fumble or from a kick through.

Like Cockadoodle said .... think I prefer downward pressure moreso than control.

[TheLoneRooster]

Muz has given his suggestion as to what he thinks the rule should be, that is not what the rule actually is..

I was aware of that and was simply commenting that the rule could be straightforward and Muz's suggestion is evidence of that.

I don't like using the word 'control' as it is subjective. I much prefer 'downward pressure'..

Downward pressure is where we get into shades of grey with tries being scored by grazes of a pinkie and "tries" like Kevin Locke's first against the Roosters last year in Auckland.

Hawkeye's thoughts are really additions to how tries can be scored rather than exceptions to the way Muz put the rule.

[supermario]

Yeah Downward pressure would be better than control, but it would need to be with the Hands only, not this crap about the torso.

[ism22]

Downward pressure... what if they are holding the ball with 2 hands, do a big dive with the ball out in front of their head and slide into the goals?
The ball has not been pushed downwards and the hands are on the side (not the top.)

Union gets it better because they don't try to be all descriptive. In union "A try is only scored when the player takes the ball across the goal line and grounds the ball. Grounding happens when the ball is on the ground and the player’s hand is on the ball."
Nice and simple...

Personally I don't think:
- 2 hands need to be touching the ball to control it (ever seen a footy players hands?)
- They have to be in control as it is too vague and never inforced anyway (if they knock on after a try it counts unless it's Badger as the ref and we are the ones scoring.)
- Downwards pressure is needed in order to ground a ball.
- Any descriptions other than "grounding" are needed...

You cut ambiguity by opening it up IMO. Refs should:
1) Always be checking the rules (e.g. forward pass, knocked forward, dodgy tackles, off-side...etc.)
2) Only ask "was it grounded?" if none of the above happened.
3) Award no try if they can't see, and have an appeal system like tennis where you can bring it to the video ref twice... but this can only be called by the captain of a team. Afterwards review the match and if the ref lacks confidence + rips off teams then sack him...