JOHN Kear has applauded the RFL crackdown on milking penalties at the ruck.

The authorities have acted to stamp out the growing trend of players deliberately throwing the ball at grounded opponents to win a cheap decision at the play-the-ball.

The issue came to a head after Castleford complained bitterly about the tactics used by Catalans on Easter Monday.

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There was also an incident at Odsal recently when Featherstone’s Cameron King was penalised for targeting a prone Connor Farrell.

Bulls coach Kear feels the RFL deserve praise for acting quickly to stamp it out.

He said: “It needed to be sorted. For the entertainment value, you don’t want the game to be stop-start where teams are looking to buy penalties.

“You should play to the spirit of the game as well as the strict laws.

“There is a head coaches’ meeting next Wednesday and this was on the agenda. But the RFL have jumped the gun and I do believe that Catalans game was the catalyst.

“Some of the actions in there were just ridiculous.”

Referee Matt Eveleigh gave a penalty to the Bulls when King tried it against Farrell during the recent Challenge Cup tie. Kear congratulated the official for making the call for contravening the “spirit of the game”.

Kear added: “It was a big decision and hopefully it will soon become the norm. The refs will stand firm for a couple or three weeks and it will be gone.

“It’s been creeping in for a while. I remember when I was at Wakefield two years ago when we lost to Hull by two points and it was on the back of a penalty where one of their players had thrown the ball into one of ours.

“But it’s escalated dramatically this season. So, let’s hope we see the back of it pretty quickly.”