Gotcha wrote:
Pathetic from the games controllers. There was no need for this, the useless officials simply had to enforce and interpret the rules correctly that were already in place.
Agreed. I asked ex-ref Ian Smith a while ago on Twitter why the actual law as its written regarding the tackle and the play the ball isnt enforced and he replied “I think you either have a very old rule book or there is an amendment somewhere so there isn’t a cost to have to re write the whole law book.” and “Every season there is a policy document and the one about placing the ball rather than dropping it will have been on a policy document before I even started refin.”
So it looks to me like they amend the laws in a policy document every year to save from re-writing them and to speed the game up. All they needed to do here was enforce the law as its written with a little bit of common sense. But no, they have to make a big song and dance about it as usual because theyve let it get so messy. Whats the point in having laws if you are going to allow something completely different.
The law actually states the ball can be dropped or placed on the ground at the PTB, but we all know what happens when its dropped.