English strip club taking over the NRL as rule comes under fire
Canberra are the official kings of the one-on-one steals in the NRL, with Josh Hodgson leading the way by a long margin, as the rule continues to divide the rugby league community.
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They are the British bandits who have stripped the football one-on-one no less than 18 times this season – and may now prompt a swift and significant rule change by the NRL.
And most of these English thieves play for a side – Canberra Raiders – who have stolen the ball under the recently introduced peel-off rule more than double any other NRL club.
Canberra has become the kings of pinching the footy.
Raiders hooker Josh Hodgson has registered 11 steals in 17 games this season – easily the most of any player in rugby league - while English teammates John Bateman and Elliott Whitehead have three each.
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They are three of the top four ball burglars in the NRL.
St George Illawarra’s English star, Gareth Widdop, has stolen the ball one-on-one once this year.
The Daily Telegraph can reveal there have been a whopping 90 one-on-one strips after 21 rounds this season. That’s an average of 4.2 each round. There were only 63 for the entire 2018 season.
NRL coaches - while using it to their advantage - are also quick to criticise the stripping rule with a push having already started to change the rule after this season.
Canberra has registered the most of any side this year (23) and last season (11).
Players peeling off tackles for a one-on-one strip - a rule introduced last season - is becoming one of the hottest and most contentious issues in rugby league with the finals looming.
A prominent NRL coach, who wished to talk off-the-record, said: “I’m not a fan – I wasn’t at the start and I’m not now. I don’t like it one bit and I don’t think it’s good for our game. It’s too hard for the referees to adjudicate on.
“It’s hard because the boys are trying to run hard, look to play a bit of shape, find their front and speed the game up, and then now all of sudden they have to stop in the tackle and worry about locking the ball up and not offloading. I don’t think it promotes our game at all.
“We hadn’t practised it as a team until last week because it was happening to us all the time. And my concern is also around kids footy. They aren’t worried about tackle technique, all they are worried about now is going into tackles to strip the ball and they are missing tackles.”
Melbourne is second behind Canberra with 11 strips this season followed by South Sydney (nine).
The peel-off strip comes when one or two players deliberately fall away from a tackled player, leaving the sole defender to legally strip.
NRL head of football, Graham Annesley, said the rule would be reviewed by the competition committee after this season.
“The latest version of the rule was introduced at the start of 2018 and didn’t appear to cause any major issues last season,” Annesley told The Daily Telegraph.
“People have short memories. It seemed to work fine until the coaches decided to use it tactically. In 2019, and particularly more recently, it seems to be becoming a tactical advantage which is within the rules.
“If there is now a view that it needs to be further modified, then that will be considered by the competition committee at the end of this season.”
The NRL competition committee includes Annesley, Darren Lockyer, Mal Meninga, Paul Green, Ivan Cleary, John Lang, Bernard Sutton, Clint Newton, three commissioners and an RLPA delegate
Wests Tigers have made just one strip this season, the least of any NRL side.
After Sunday’s game in Canberra, Roosters coach Trent Robinson panned the peel-off strip, asking who “pressure tested” the rule.
“It was pressure tested all last season,” Annesley responded.
Storm star Cameron Munster has pinched the ball four times this year, second to Hodgson, with Melbourne teammate Kenny Bromwich stealing the ball three times. Newcastle’s Connor Watson (three) and South Sydney’s Cameron Murray (three) round out the top seven players for strips.
Originally published as English strip club taking over the NRL as rule comes under fire