Now that would never catch on....

Where they not supposed to police that a couple of seasons ago, remember a few penalties for incorrect PTB, now they arent bothered about them again, annoys me though at least make the effort.

It all comes down to getting the balance between attack and defence right. That is what the authorities are actually bothered about, not the mechanics. With either attack or defence dominating too much it spoils games and removes the spectacle, so they fiddle about with 'interpretations' and tell refs to ping this or that - or not to, depending on the current need.

To be honest I don't have a problem with rules being changed [though it's a pain when it happens too much, and it usually does, what I do have a problem with is when the on field 'interpretation' is totally at odds with the rule - as we have now with the PTB. If we have a good balanced game with the ball being thrown back between the legs and the foot being waved somewhere in the vicinity and with the defence just 8 metres back, well fine - just alter the rules to reflect that this is how the game should be played, then we'd have nothing to complain about.

And another thing I hate is the seemingly unwritten rule that the player should "make an attempt" to ptb with his foot.

Why then not let people off forward passes, as long as they "make an attempt" to pass it backwards?

Why not let people off unlucky fumbles - if the player at least made an attempt to catch the ball?

Why not give 2 points for a kick that bounces off the post? The kicker made a bloody good attempt to get it between the posts?

And in the case of the PTB, it would be so easy to police; if you enforced the rule that the ball had to be "placed on the ground" then clearly, it won't then move, unless you play it with the foot. Attempts don't come into it.

And that is the crux of it to me. When a player properly places the ball down on the ground, if he then "made an attempt" to play it, i.e. if his foot very clearly made the full ptb motion - but he missed the ball, and it never moved, then he would be penalised every time. But if the ball moves back to the dummy half DUE TO HAVING BEEN ROLLED ALONG THE GROUND BY THE HAND then the same player will NOT be penalised usually, as long as that was accompanied by a leg waft, however cursory.