When is 13 meters actually 10?

[melon....]

When Easts are defending. I was in Bay 15 on Saturday and in line with the 30m line. Penrith would play the ball at the 27m and the ref made us hold the line on the 40. Thats 13 meters.

This happened most of the first half as I could clearly tell from the markings we were in line with. In contrast the Riff line was never more than 8 or 9 meters from the play the ball. I couldn't believe how long they were holding onto legs when we trying to play the ball quickly.

But the refs were giving them at least 15m gain in every set. Thankfully the Riff 5th tackle option consisted of either passing into touch or knocking on.

[Guest]

The inconsistency is bs. You'd swear the Saints forwards were quicker than Usaine Bolt with the speed they cover the "10m".

[redwhiteandbluester]

I absolutely hate this too. I agree there was a discrepancy on Saturday, but the standing back 12 happens too often.

Against Western Subs I thought the refs did a good job of standing 10 and keeping both teams onside. My problem when they stand back 12 or 13 and allow the teams to only get back 10 (i.e. the line is in front of the refs every ruck) is how much of a mockery it makes of offside penalties. There were about 5 or 6 offside penalties in the Penrith game - but both teams stood in front of the ref all day, why penalise them that particular ruck?

Stand back 10, and make sure the teams get back 10. Simple.

[Kurt Sherlock's Mo]

That and the farside touchie who retreats with the defensive line to HAVE A F*#%ING LOOK.

[Kingbilly]

Thats nothing compared to the U16 GF between Clovelly and Alexandria at Redfern. The Ref actually told the Clovelly players, this is souths territory not Easts.
The Cloey boys got up despite a 13-2 penalty count

[Guest]

It's very frustrating...and the main reason my vocal chords are ruptured.
Well done to Clovelly.

[elo]

Our boys are paranoid of being penalised after being arse raped all season, we were clearly getting off the tackled player a good 2 - 3 seconds quicker than Penrith for no benefit.

[Headless Chook]

The inconsistency is bs. You'd swear the Saints forwards were quicker than Usaine Bolt with the speed they cover the "10m".

Warren Ryan reckons this is a clever ploy by Saints. He reckons they are deliberately offside for the first 2-3 tackles of every set. They then start getting back onside for the final 3 tackles. The reasoning is that the first couple of tackles set the tone for a defensive set. If you can get off your line quick and cut down the early metres it means you will defend from the front foot for the rest of the set. Saints know that its unlikely the ref will penalise them for the first offside offence unless its very blatant. So they stand a yard or two offside. They also know that once the crowd notices they are offside they will start calling for a penalty so by tackle 3 the ref is more likely to blow a penalty.

Clever stuff if you can get away with it, and they have done so for nearly 2 years now.

[Guest]

That's the one thing I'll give Tim "whoop whoop!" Mander, he always kept an eye on his touchies and made sure they kept the ten.

[Spirit of 66]

Warren Ryan reckons this is a clever ploy by Saints. He reckons they are deliberately offside for the first 2-3 tackles of every set. They then start getting back onside for the final 3 tackles. The reasoning is that the first couple of tackles set the tone for a defensive set. If you can get off your line quick and cut down the early metres it means you will defend from the front foot for the rest of the set. Saints know that its unlikely the ref will penalise them for the first offside offence unless its very blatant. So they stand a yard or two offside. They also know that once the crowd notices they are offside they will start calling for a penalty so by tackle 3 the ref is more likely to blow a penalty.

Clever stuff if you can get away with it, and they have done so for nearly 2 years now.

Ryan is absolutely right. Bennett ALWAYS coaches his teams to do that. Kick long, stay offside for the first two or three tackles and try to force an error.

This tactic needs to be exposed in the media. Hopefully it will put pressure on the referees to stop it.

[Guest]

Hi guys, I'm new here and very much enjoyed being at the game (6 of us there all Roosters fans who all reside in Penrith and had no problems making it to the game!), but one issue I have was that every time Sandor Earl played the ball, he ran forward 5 metres taking our markers out of play with their dummy half running around the outside. He was the only one I noticed but that was most likely because he did it EVERY single time.

Is there a rule against this? It may have been that our markers were too quick in getting off him, but from memory there was never a time he played the ball and stayed on the mark.

Nit-picking though - overall Penrith had no chance.

[Guest]

Thats nothing compared to the U16 GF between Clovelly and Alexandria at Redfern. The Ref actually told the Clovelly players, this is souths territory not Easts.
The Cloey boys got up despite a 13-2 penalty count

ref was a joke

[Rooster Rampage]

This is how it always is, for the roosters the 10m rule is a 12-14m rule and the holding down rule (which i think is 3 seconds), becomes 1 second It just shows how well we have done to come this far even with such a handicap from the refs.

[Guest]

Someone here raised it earlier and i paid more attention to it in the last game.

Every tackle Jake Friend is involved in, from the outset, the refs are calling his name out.

Now i'll admit, he does have a good wrestle and tries to work the tackled player over, but it happens in EVERY tackle.


Walking off the mark is a big issue in League. Campese crawled 5 metres the other night and it resulted in a try.

[Kingbilly]

ref was a joke

loved his penalty when the big guy got smashed under their posts and lost the ball