An email was recently circulated from the RFL to Super League clubs.
Hull FC coach Andy Last has warned Super League not to become like the ‘touch football’ seen in the NRL.
Hull FC coach Andy Last has sent out a warning to both the RFL and Super League clubs regarding the competition’s ruck speed.
An email was recently circulated from the RFL to clubs regarding the play-the-ball, stating that the speed of the rucks has gotten slower in recent weeks and will now be policed more strictly as per the start of the season.
However, Last has outlined the frustration of the lack of consistency in the change in interpretation and has called for officials to find a ‘happy medium’, outlining a warning to the Super League to not follow the NRL’s model and effectively play ‘touch football’.
Outlining his stance, Last said: “We received an email from the RFL saying that the rucks have slowed down a little bit over the last two or three weeks. It said they’re on average a little bit slower, so they’re going to work on trying to speed the rucks up again.
“That’s why there are more six agains and more penalties and that’s why at the Magic Weekend, we got the blow-out scores because the rucks were policed a little bit differently to what they were in the middle third of the season.
“At the beginning of the year, when the new ruck speeds first came in, we had officials speak about what is going to be penalised and what is going to be a six again. It then felt as though all teams were just quick to jump off and the rucks became really, really quick – and then you probably had a period where there was a little bit of inconsistency.
“Teams have since found ways of slowing the ruck down under the new rules and that’s by piling bodies in. Now I think as a spectacle, we need to try and get that happy medium and the officials are working through all those inconsistencies as we are as a team.
“It has been really frustrating. I’d say last year the rucks were way too slow, but maybe two or three years ago, I didn’t think we had a bad ruck. I felt the speed of the ruck was okay.
“I don’t want us to go like the NRL because it’s just way too quick; it’s like a game of touch sometimes and the big blow-out scores aren’t what I want to see. I like to see a little bit of creativity to try and break down a defence and players having to work out how to create some quick rucks by maybe spotting a player up or coming up with something a little bit out of the box to try and generate some speed. The balance I think is important. We don’t want it to be too quick, but we don’t want it to be too slow and become like WrestleMania.
“From a product point of view, we need to try and get that happy medium. We want an entertaining and fast free-flowing sport, but there’s also that physicality element of it with some rewards for that in defence. That’s what we’re aiming for.”