The NRL is reportedly aware of a growing trend of defenders forming a defensive wall to stop the opposition from being able to contest the ball after footage of Eels players pretending to attempt to catch the football circulated online on Sunday.
On several occasions during Parramatta’s win over the Dragons, Eels players put their arms out pretending to try and catch the ball while providing an escort for fullback Isaiah Iongi.
This was best illustrated in the 68th minute, where four players were seen running back towards Iongi with their hands raised almost standing shoulder to shoulder to provide the Eels No. 1 a clean run, jump and catch.
It was an area noted by Andrew Voss during the match.
“Iongi so safe today,” Voss said. “There would be five or six really good bomb catches of Iongi out of this match.”
The Eels adopted the same measure another four times against the Dragons in the 12th minute (one player escort), the 34th minute (three player escort), 44th minute (three player escort), and 59th minute (three players escort).
You can watch the Eels exploiting the escort loophole above.
The cheeky tactic appears to have circumvented the NRL’s crackdown on disrupters this season.
The league introduced a new rule before the start of the season that requires a player to contest a ball in the air with two hands, thereby eradicating the one-handed bat back, while a focus has also been placed on stamping out players running escort lines.
However, the Eels and other clubs have seemingly found a new inventive way around it, in the form of a human wall.
A similar ploy was also used by the Cowboys, Broncos, Storm, Tigers, Cronulla and the Titans during Round 3, with the move allowing fullbacks an uncontested catch.
As it stands, the move is completely legal, given that the rule book states that as long as a defending player holds their line, it is all above board.
Defending players are only penalised if they change their line to deliberately impede a chasing player.
“A player is not to ‘deliberately obstruct an opponent who is not in possession’. It may be interpreted as obstruction regarding a player catching the ball from a kick if a player arrives at the same time as an opponent and obstructs him deliberately or deliberately runs an opponent off the ball,” the NRL rules state under the subhead of Escorts.
“This applies to both the kicking and non-kicking teams. It will not be considered obstruction if a defending player moves directly towards the ball and takes up a position prior to the ball being caught.”
According to Code Sports, the NRL is aware of the new tactic and is okay with it as long as players don’t change their lines.
After it was done so successfully on the weekend, the Eels’ clever tactics have been compared the infamous ‘Parramatta Wall’ of the 1980s, while others questioned if the interpretation for what a blocker is needs to change.
“The modern day Parramatta wall,” Kit Walker wrote on X in reaction to an image circulating of four Eels players pretending to catch the ball.
“What’s the point of the wall if it’s not to obstruct the chaser?” Thomas IIyama asked.
“Make it make sense,” Scott Gibbs added.
