PLAYERS and coaches were far from surprised by referee Marcus Griffiths’ quicker rucks in the Festive Challenge, welcoming the change in interpretation.
“We knew after the Ashes that the rucks were going to be policed a lot differently and the conversations we had with the officials, as well, have led us to believe that,” Leeds assistant coach Jamie Langley said after the 18-10 win over Wakefield at Headingley.
“Marcus did a great job of carrying that out for us today. We’ve got a lot of work that we need to do internally in terms of tidying up our detail around the rucks.
“It’s going to be really exciting for us as a unit, the way we play the game here at Leeds. I think it’s going to suit our style of play, that power game, front-foot football.
“And just speaking to Crofty (Brodie Croft) and Jake (Connor) there afterwards, they’re licking their lips at the sight of that.
“If they’re going to police the game that way going forward, it can only be a good thing.”
Wakefield boss Daryl Powell said the changing interpretations were the only useful thing to come out of the Boxing Day game.
“There’s a bit around the ruck area which you can see are going to be a little bit different this year,” he said at the post-match media conference.
“We’re not going to do much off the back of that, just the ruck area and how the referees are going to interpret that.”
But Leeds players seem to have been prepared for a dramatic change in the way the game is controlled, new signing Jeremiah Mata’utai repeatedly referring to it in a club interview as a rule change.
“It was good, pretty fast, obviously with new rules coming in next year,” the 21-year-old said.
“It definitely felt fast. Obviously new rules are always a bit harsh when it’s played in a game like this. It’s good to get used to it and work on it at training.”