THE RL1908 BLOG

News, Reviews & Opinion - Sean Fagan - RL1908.com

My attempt to convert modern rugby league thinking....

The play-the-ball....I hear some pointing to the increasing number of play-the-balls as evidence of entertainment value and speed...

Let's roll back to the era before WW2...Frank Burge & Duncan Thompson..."Don't die with the football!" was their catch-cry!

Rugby league's play-the-ball and "held" rules were originally meant to be punishment for being caught with the football. It was a reward for the defending team having captured their enemy.

Today, the attacking team is actually rewarded for being tackled with the football and allowing play to die (defenders forced back 10m, plus every chance of getting a penalty in the play-the-ball wrestle, in the tackle, or defenders infringing at marker and/or 10m).

Any wonder it is a winning strategy to play a no risk game when in possession of the football.

"Cuthbo!...Don't throw that pass!" Execution must be perfect in an off-load, failure is fatal as your team loses possession of the ball and ultimately 60m of territory.

When you think about it, until we have more incentives to avoid being tackled/"held" than to pass or kick the football, we will continue to see the play-the-ball as the predominant feature of a rugby league game, instead of ball movement.

Here's an excercise for you - from an 80 minute game, deduct the time taken up at every play-the-ball...from the moment of the "held"/tackle call, thru' to the moment the dummy-half has the ball in his hands...how much time was taken up? I reckon its about 30 minutes of a game (400 play-the-balls x 5 seconds).

We're now over 400 play-the-balls per game, yet in 1908 there were fewer than a dozen a game.

It's a bit exaggerated, and we don't want a game of mayhem, but that is 400 times a player opted to run at tacklers knowing he would ultimately die with the football, instead of running away from tacklers, towards a gap, making a gap, and/or passing or kicking the football.

When rugby league started in Australia in 1908, despite the play-the-ball rule of 1906 being one of the changes from rugby union rules, it barely rated a mention in any newspaper articles of 1908 explaining the rules of the "new rugby" of rugby league, or match reports.

Plenty of mentions of 13-aside, that there were no line-outs, that kickers needed to bounce the ball into touch from kicks - but bugger all on the play-the-ball!

Ask a prospective viewer of rugby league what they don't like about the game - invariably they will talk about the repeated throwing of man after man, tackle after tackle, at the defensive line, as the team moves up field....Oh, and there is that "wriggling fish dance" that goes with every tackle as well.

Solutions? That's for another day. Let's just agree that we could do better than rejoicing in the 400 or so play-the-balls!