Rugby league playing field

[3] The dimensions and markings of a full-sized playing area are defined in Section 1 of the Laws of the Game.

[11] The bottom 2 m (6.6 feet) of a goal post is recommended to be padded to protect players from injury.

[13] Proponents of the move argued a series a possible future scenarios made this preventative measure necessary, with ARL chief executive Geoff Carr stating, "no one has thought of the possibility of using the corner post as a weapon to defuse a try and we want to stop it before they do".

[14] One scenario was that a defending player might manipulate the corner post to put an attacker out of play.

[14] Another concern cited was that the corner post might be made to make contact with a rolling ball to ensure the defending team gains possession with a 20-metre restart.

[14] Corner posts, which sometimes lean to one side, have no upper height limit set and this led to a fear that corner posts might become "long rubber snakes, biting attackers and sending them into touch", in the words of Roy Masters.

[15] A ball that makes contact with the corner post while not in the possession of a player will be deemed to be touch in-goal as before.

[15] There was no attempt to remove the corner posts from the playing field as they are used to promote sponsors and are also a useful aid for players to judge their kicks.

[14] The change was agreed by the NRL Board and approved by the RLIF as an experimental rule.