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SYDNEY - The National Rugby League (NRL) will consider taking the extraordinary step of changing a rule midseason after the furore surrounding obstruction continued to simmer yesterday.
New Zealand Warriors coach Ivan Cleary joined the growing discontent amongst clubs after his side were twice denied by video referee Chris Ward in their narrow 18-16 win over South Sydney.
Several coaches have voiced concern over the interpretation of obstruction this season after the rule was tweaked at last year's annual conference where coaches agreed decoy runners could be penalised even if they did not initiate contact with defenders.
Referees' boss Robert Finch has asked all club coaches to provide feedback on the issue, with NRL chief operating officer Graham Annesley open to making "tweaks" to the ruling midseason to end the confusion.
"If the coaches have a view that we need to tweak it and make it a little clearer for everybody then we certainly have the ability to do that and we will do that," Annesley said on 2GB radio.
"(At the annual conference) we came up with a resolution that everyone was happy with at the time.
"That has been put into practice and (if) the first few rounds of the competition have shown that we need to tweak that and go back and revisit it then we will do that.
"There's obviously confusion and obviously concerns and we have a responsibility to address that and we will do that this week."
Cleary said video referees appear to be looking for ways to make no try rulings, despite the NRL laws stating benefit of the doubt should go to the tryscorer.
"The calls are never made while the game is going on, only when it goes to the video," said Cleary.
"Every time there's a try scored now we are trying to find a way why it's not a try which is opposite to the benefit of the doubt.
"We have slowed the play the ball down the last couple of years and we've got to try to find ways to come up with good attacking plays to get through defences and now they're shutting that down too."
South Sydney coach Jason Taylor believes the NRL should revert back to the ruling used last year.
"It mightn't have been perfect before but it was better than this," he said.
"We tried to change it but for whatever reason there's too many penalties. I think we should bite the bullet and go back."
Finch said he had only received a small sample of responses from NRL coaches over obstruction, and most were favourable despite the vocal discontent.
"The small sample I've already got are comfortable with where we are at," said Finch.
But Annesley conceded there was growing confusion in the game, mainly because it was impossible to have a black and white obstruction ruling as every incident is open to interpretation.
"We can't make everybody understand the nuances of all the rules," he said.
"At end of day it comes down to a judgment call. You can have as many guidelines and rules in place as you want but the referees or video referees have to sit in judgment and say ok was there obstruction caused in that incident or wasn't there?
"It's not easy to have a black and white rule because each situation is different.
"There has to be some judgment involved and that's where we create the controversy."
In other obstruction cases this round Manly suffered a pivotal no try ruling when trailing 18-10 to North Queensland on Saturday.
The Sea Eagles eventually lost their first game of the year 30-26 while the Gold Coast cast aside an early no try decision to thump Parramatta 38-12 yesterday.
In other matches Melbourne moved top of the table as the only undefeated team by beating premier Brisbane 28-18, Canberra added to Penrith's misery with a 34-18 victory, Wests Tigers upset the Bulldogs 34-18 and Sydney Roosters opened their account with an 18-4 win over St George Illawarra on Anzac Day.
- AAP
