I went to refs training and interviewed Raper and Harrigan last week, by sounds of it Harigan wants it run it will be a high penalty count in the first few rounds. I expect they will hammer the players early then back off after a few rounds like most years. Hopefully play the ball is a little cleaner than some of what happened last year, but its hardly the most imporant thing in history. Basically the rule interpretation will be as long as the player makes a genuine effort to get their foot to the ball its all good. What genuine is determined as by individual refs could be tough.
There is a change to the 2 refs this year, one is dominant and one is passive ruck red, but if the ball is turned over they switch and passive becomes dominant and visa versa.
Also change to the scrum interpretation, if players bind and stop the clock, they have stand up on the spot if the opposition is wasting time but cannot move from the spot or unbind, bascially 2nd row and lock dont have to keep their heads down.
Let me say I'm also super thrilled about having to listen to all this junk again at the NRL media briefing on Thursday... sigh