The NRL have admitted two controversial disruptor calls this weekend were wrong, but insist there is a good reason the rule is here to stay.<\/p>\n
Head of football Graham Annesley confirmed on Sunday there would be no changes around disruptors, and clarified no ban existed on competing for kicks one handed.<\/p>\n
Annesley has been largely kept silent in recent years, after his weekly briefings were scrapped by head office before last season.<\/p>\n
The NRL has admitted the wrong decision was made when Scott Drinkwater penalised for taking Josiah Karapani out in a kick contest.\u00a0Photo by Chris Hyde\/Getty Image<\/p>\n
But the veteran official confirmed on Sunday that Sydney Roosters centre Robert Toia and North Queensland fullback Scott Drinkwater should not have been penalised over the weekend in isolated errors.<\/p>\n
Drinkwater was ruled to have taken Josiah Karapani out in a kick contest on Friday night, before Brisbane scored in the next set.<\/p>\n
Toia was then denied a try on Saturday over a contest with Sam Stonestreet, before Cronulla went downfield and scored.<\/p>\n
“In both of those instances the NRL believes they were legitimate kick contests,” Annesley told AAP. <\/p>\n
“We felt that both players had an opportunity to contest the ball in both of those incidents. <\/p>\n
“So we think that the bunker over-adjudicated.”<\/p>\n
The NRL’s disruptor rule has come under heavy fire in recent days, including claims that when taken to the extreme it rewards “laughable errors” from catching players.<\/p>\n
At its core, the rule is designed to stop kick chasers feigning a contest for the ball after a rise in players having a kamikaze-style run and jump at rival fullbacks and wingers.<\/p>\n
“The alternative to not having the rule is basically open season, you can do whatever you want in a kick contest,” Annesley said.<\/p>\n
“And we’ll see players being knocked over left, right and centre without any opportunity to try and contest the ball.<\/p>\n
“It is an important principle of our game that when a ball’s in the air, players from both sides have to be given the opportunity to try and receive it. <\/p>\n
“That’s the sole intention of this rule. A disruptor is essentially about obstruction. The rules are very clear. They have been that for 118 years. <\/p>\n
“It’s against the laws of the game to interfere with or obstruct a player who is not in possession of the ball.”<\/p>\n
Annesley said the main decision for match officials was whether there had been a fair contest for the ball.<\/p>\n
Other indicators include whether players arrived for a kick contest at the same time, the line a player has run and if they are looking at the ball or their opposition.<\/p>\n
But Annesley moved to clarify against a “misconception” players could not attempt to bat the ball back one handed.<\/p>\n
“There is no blanket ban on one-handed knocking the ball back,” Annesley said. <\/p>\n
“What you can’t do is come through at a high speed, jump in the air, swipe at the ball and take out a defender. That’s not a contest.<\/p>\n
“If you can get there and swipe at the ball and knock it backwards without making any contact with a defender, then that’s perfectly OK.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The NRL have admitted two controversial disruptor calls this weekend were wrong, but insist there is a good…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":601687,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-601686","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nrl","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-national-rugby-league","11":"tag-nationalrugbyleague","12":"tag-nrl","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601686","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=601686"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601686\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/601687"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=601686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=601686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=601686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}