The NRL have made a law change concerning contested restarts in 2024, in a bid to encourage teams to take risks to regain possession.
“The change is designed to incentivize more contests for the ball from set restarts,” the NRL said in a statement yesterday, announcing the move which the league believes will give teams “more incentive” to attempt short kick-offs or drop-outs.
So what is the change?
If a team kicks the ball out on the full over the touch line, or the ball fails to travel at least 10M forward in an attempt to contest a restart from the goal-line, 20M line, or half-way line, play will now restart with a play-the-ball 10M out from the line of the kick, rather than with a penalty.
