Anybody else experiencing high penalty rates after the update? We've also noticed that home advantage seems to have gone up quite a bit. Players who I beat consistantly in the last week are now beating me consistantly without any major strategy changes.

No. Exactly the opposite, to be honest - pens (and injuries, for that matter) were very high last season and at the beginning of this, they seem to have dropped back to where they were before that.

You're welcome to have a look at some of my games, seems almost every 2nd tackle made on my players in a home game results in a penalty in my favour resulting in zero flow to the game.

Could be a strategy that needs to be tweaked

Team Name: Coach qBaLLs
Guild: Only RSA! (20th)

Looks like you've not got high enough safe tackle figures on your tight 5 to me - perhaps the change has meant they're doing more of your tackling now from kick-offs.

My question isn't related to me conceding penalties, rather my opponents conceding frequently against me :). It feels like rather beating the defender I keep on getting a penalty in my favor, makes it a bit difficult to score tries. Even tried setting down my penalty distance but happens at lineout time so he ends up going for posts.

OK, will take another look - the game I looked at in detail was one you gave away a lot in.

Same thing, though - safe tackle way too low.

Me or my opponent?

I'm assuming opponent here. Check my last two games, opponents safe tackling is almost non existant and yet only one tackle penalty conceded. Compared to a player whose safe tackling is 5 to 10 points below my hand off and penetration rate conceding several penalties. I'm just trying to understand how this works so I can build my strategy around it to score some more tries and get those much needed bonus points

I believe it's actually the difference between tackle and safe tackle that matters. If you don't want to get pens, set your own aggression rates higher - problem with that is that you might give a lot away to an opponent. It is frustrating when you're after bonus points and all you get are endless pens!
Reality is that unless you have the best team in the game by some distance, there's no perfect strategy that suits all opponents - which makes the game more interesting, I guess.