Law Discussion - Super 14, Week 4

So far we have given statistics for Six Nations and Super 14 and done a law discussion for the Six Nations. There are also clips on the SA Referees site – www.sareferees.co.za. Towards the end we shall repeat the content of some of the clips in case some people cannot play them. But first we shall deal with new ones.

As a matter of interest there were four occasions when a team took the ball back into its 22 and then kicked it directly into touch. It happened when the Waratahs played the Brumbies, the Stormers played the Reds, the Cheetahs played the Chiefs and Blues played Sharks in Durban

1. Foot to ball

The point of this is the next step.

The Western Force and the Crusaders met at Subiaco Oval in Perth in a great match. At  a tackle/ruck the referee awards a free kick against the Crusaders. Scott Fava of the Force grabs the ball and holds it at about his waist. He lifts his left boot to the ball and sets off to run.

The referee calls him back, saying: “I want the ball to leave your hands.”

Forget the “I want” which has nothing to do with a decision which is based on the Laws of the Game not a referee’s whim. Let’s look at the law about taking such a kick.

DEFINITION

Kick – a kick is made by hitting the ball with any part of the leg or foot, except the heel, from the toe to the knee but not including the knee; a kick must move the ball a visible distance out of the hand, or along the ground.

The ball did not leave Fava’s hand when he put his boot to it.

Law 21.3 HOW THE PENALTY AND FREE KICKS ARE TAKEN

(a) Any player may take a penalty or free kick awarded for an infringement with any kind of kick: punt, drop kick or place kick. The ball may be kicked with any part of the leg from knee to toe but not with the heel.

(b) Bouncing the ball on the knee is not taking a kick.

(c) The kicker must use the ball that was in play unless the referee decides it was defective.

Penalty: Any infringement by the kicker’s team results in a scrum at the mark. The opposing team throws in the ball.

The last bit is also law and it is relevant.

In this case the referee left the free kick with the Force.

In Paris, Lionel Nallet took a tap kick five metres from Italy’s line. Like Fava he got the process wrong. There the referee applied the law and awarded a scrum to Italy.

One of the referees must have made a wrong decision.  If you look at the law, the error must have been in Perth.

2. Out the mouth

The Waratahs put the ball into a scrum. Because the previous scrum had collapsed, the referee had gone to the “other” side, the side where the ball was not being put in. The reset scrum started collapsing on that side as well but the ball came out and the Brumbies’ scrumhalf, Patrick Phibbs, scampered off with it.

The problem is how it came out.

It came back out of the tunnel  of the scrum.  In most cases that would have produced a rescrum.

Law 20.7 WHEN THE SCRUM BEGINS

(a) Play in the scrum begins when the ball leaves the hands of the scrum half.

(b) If the scrum half throws in the ball and it comes out at either end of the tunnel, the ball must be thrown in again unless a free kick or penalty has been awarded.

(c) If the ball is not played by a front row player, and it goes straight through the tunnel and comes out behind the foot of a far prop without being touched, the scrum half must throw it in again.

(d) If the ball is played by a front row player and comes out of the tunnel, advantage may apply.

In this case the ball was played in the tunnel. advantage could apply.

Law 8 ADVANTAGE

DEFINITIONS

The Law of advantage takes precedence over most other Laws and its purpose is to make play more continuous with fewer stoppages for infringements. Players are encouraged to play to the whistle despite infringements by their opponents. When the result of an infringement by one team is that their opposing team may gain an advantage, the referee does not whistle immediately for the infringement.

The implication is that there should be an infringement before there can be advantage.

In this case there may have been an infringement. It may also have been a case of the referee’s not being able to see the emergence of the ball and refusing – bless him – to guess.

3. Dangerous tackles

Dangerous tackles are not going away. There were a few – an air tackle (Rocky Elsom), a high tackle (Tyrone Smith), an armless, shoulder-first tackle (Tyrone Smith) and a spear tackle (David Pocock) in the Sydney rain, an armless tackle (Jimmy Cowan) and two high tackles (Andrew Hore and Ma’a Nonu) in Dunedin, a spear tackle (Zane Kirchner), a late tackle (Rayno Benjamin), and air tackle (Bakkies Botha) in Pretoria, air tackle (Tonderai Chavhanga) and a spear tackle (Quade Cooper) in Brisbane,  spear tackle (Sitiveni Sivivatu), late tackle (Conrad Barnard), late tackle (Hendro Scholtz) and high tackle (Eddie Fredericks) in Hamilton and high tackle (Keegan Daniel) in Durban.

That’s a fair litany.

All of them were penalised. Kirchner was given a red cards, Smith and Nonu yellow cards and Nonu was cited and suspended.

Is there a will to eradicate them?

4. The final whistle

When does a match end?

a. The Stormers are to put the ball into a scrum five metres from the Reds’ line.

The scrum collapses. The referee orders a reset.
The scrum collapses and the referee orders a reset. The siren goes for half-time.
The scrum collapses. The referee whistles for half-time.

When the referee awarded the scrum there was 1 minute and 15 seconds to play. There was no play in that time.

b. The Bulls are to put the ball into a scrum in midfield.

The scrum goes up. The final siren sounds. The referee whistles full-time.

When the referee awarded the scrum there were 40 seconds to play. There was no play in that time – just some fiddling around with a substitution and then the rising of the scrum

Law 5.7 (e) If time expires and the ball is not dead, or an awarded scrum or line-out has not been completed the referee allows play to continue until the next time that the ball becomes dead. If time expires and a mark, free kick or penalty kick is then awarded, the referee allows play to continue.

In each case the scrum was awarded. When did it end. Did it end when it fell down? Did it end when it rose up?

Law 20.10 ENDING THE SCRUM

(a) The ball comes out. When the ball comes out of the scrum in any direction except the tunnel, the scrum ends.

(b) Scrum in the in-goal. A scrum cannot take place in the in-goal. When the ball in a scrum is on or over the goal line, the scrum ends and an attacker or a defender may legally ground the ball for a try or a touch down.

(c) Hindmost player unbinds. The hindmost player in a scrum is the player whose feet are nearest the team’s own goal line. If the hindmost player unbinds from the scrum with the ball at that player’s feet and picks up the ball, the scrum ends.

In the two scrums we have mentioned, none of the three endings happened.

Surely the scrum should have gone on.

5. What does repeated mean?

There were four penalties at collapsed scrums in the match between the Highlanders and the Hurricanes, all against the Hurricanes, three against Tim Fairbrother.

At the third one the referee calls Rodney So’oialo, the Hurricanes captain, over and says: “Three penalties against this man for collapsing when he’s under pressure. Starting to move towards repeated infringements.”

That is an unusual statement.

Does he mean that the next time Fairbrother collapses a scrum he will then move towards repeated infringement. The time after that he will reach repeated infringement. Five infringements = 1 repeated infringement.

That cannot make sense.

Law 10.3 REPEATED INFRINGEMENTS

(a) Repeatedly offending. A player must not repeatedly infringe any law. Repeated infringement is a matter of fact. The question of whether or not the player intended to infringe is irrelevant.
Penalty: Penalty Kick

A player penalised for repeated infringements must be cautioned and temporarily suspended. If that player then commits a further cautionable offence, or the same offence, the player must be sent off.

repeat: say or do again.

Twice is enough to qualify as repeated.

Clearly the nature of the offence contributes to the nature of the action. If a flyhalf knocks on twice, the referee is not going to say: “Aha, repeated infringement.  Off you go, my china.”

Collapsing the scum is dangerous – tedious at best but potentially damaging. Three times would be serious enough for a sin-binning.

6. In front of the kicker

Some things have not died. Foot-up and putting the ball in straight but not it seems being in front of the kicker.

Jongi Nokwe makes the ball dead in the Cheetahs’ in-goal. The referee orders a drop-out. Nokwe throws the ball up to Falie Oelschig of the Cheetahs who runs to the 22 and hoofs the ball over 50 metres down the field.

Away from Oelschig, a Cheetah player is marginally in front when he kicks. He is a forward and starts lumbering forward. The referee blows him up for being in front of the kicker and offers the Chiefs the option of a free kick or a scrum.

Law 13.16 THE KICKER’S TEAM

(a) All the kicker’s team must be behind the ball when it is kicked. If not, a scrum is formed at the centre of the 22-metre line. The opposing team throws in the ball.

(b) However, if the kick is taken so quickly that players of the kicker’s team who are retiring are still in front of the ball, they will not be penalised. They must not stop retiring until they have been made onside by an action of a team mate. They must not take part in the game until they have been made onside in this way.
Penalty: Scrum at the centre of the 22-metre line. The opposing team throws in the ball.

The referee was right, except that under the experimental law variations the free kick replaces the scrum.

In this case the Chiefs opted for the scrum in any case.

Will we next see a free kick for a crooked feed?

Bet you will not see one for foot-up in your lifetime.

Crooked feeds and foot-up have more effect on the game than a forward lumbering forward 50 metres behind a kick.

7. Which came first – foot or ground?

Dusty Noble of the Lions is in a hurry to take a drop out against the Bulls but the referee pulls him up and offers the Bulls a choice of a kick again or a scrum. They opt for the scrum.

Why?

Law 13.10 A drop out is a drop kick taken by the defending team. The drop out may be taken anywhere on or behind the 22-metre line.

Drop kick?

DEFINITIONS

Drop kick: The ball is dropped from the hand or hands to the ground and kicked as it rises from its first bounce.

Noble  drops the ball first onto his boot and his boot then propel it to the ground. It should have gone to the ground first and then to the boot. Noble’s kick was a grubber kick, not a drop kick.

It was an incorrect kick.

Law 13.12 DROP OUT INCORRECTLY TAKEN

If the ball is kicked with the wrong type of kick, or from the wrong place, the opposing team has two choices:
To have another drop out, or To have a scrum at the centre of the 22-metre line and they throw in the ball.

The referee was right.

8. Unbound

The Blues put the ball into the scrum and it comes to Williams’s feet. Look at his arms. They are clearly not bound. He then turns his body to block Rory Kockott, the Sharks’ scrumhalf, but Kockott manages to get beyond him to tackle Danny Lee, the Blues’ scrumhalf.

The referee makes the point, saying: “Play on. The ball is out. You’re unattached.”

Law 20.1 (f) Number of players: eight. A scrum must have eight players from each team. All eight players must stay bound to the scrum until it ends. Each front row must have three players in it, no more and no less. Two locks must form the second row.
Penalty: Penalty Kick

Unattached? Not bound.

20.3 BINDING IN THE SCRUM

(a) Binding by all front row players. All front row players must bind firmly and continuously from the start to the finish of the scrum.
Penalty: Penalty Kick

Binding?

DEFINITION

When a player binds on a team mate that player must use the whole arm from hand to shoulder to grasp the team mate’s body at or below the level of the armpit. Placing only a hand on another player is not satisfactory binding.

(f) Binding by all other players. All players in a scrum, other than front-row players, must bind on a lock’s body with at least one arm. The locks must bind with the props in front of them. No player other than a prop may hold an opponent.
Penalty: Penalty Kick

Williams was certainly not bound.

In fact if anybody is penalisable in this situation it was Williams.

Law 20. 10 (c) Hindmost player unbinds. The hindmost player in a scrum is the player whose feet are nearest the team’s own goal line. If the hindmost player unbinds from the scrum with the ball at that player’s feet and picks up the ball, the scrum ends.

Williams did not play the ball.

Law 10.1 (d) Blocking the ball. A player must not intentionally move or stand in a position that prevents an opponent from playing the ball.
Penalty: Penalty Kick

Williams did his illegal best to keep Kockott from the ball.

9. Mark in goal

Tonderai Chavhanga of the Stormers falls back to collect a long, high kick. As he works his way beck he has his eyes fixed on the ball. Unaware, probably, of his position on the field he calls for the mark. When he does so he is about eight metres behind his goal-line. The referee blows his whistle and Chavhanga touches the ball down. The referee requires him to take the mark. The mark is about eight metres behind his goal-line. He taps the ball, runs it out and kicks downfield.

All OK?

Yes.

Law 18 A player from the defending team may make a mark in in-goal.

Where must he take the mark?

Law 18 A kick is awarded for a mark. The place for the kick is the place of the mark.

Law 18.3 KICK – WHERE
The kick is taken at or behind the mark on a line through the mark.

Where must the opposition be?

Law 21.8 WHAT OPTIONS THE OPPOSING TEAM HAVE AT A FREE KICK

(a) Must run from the mark. The opposing team must immediately run towards their own goal line until they are at least 10 metres away from the mark for the free kick, or until they have reached their goal line if that is nearer the mark. If the free kick is in a defending teams in-goal area, the opposing team must immediately run towards their own goal line until they are at least 10 metres away from the mark and not nearer than 5 metres from the goal line.

Could Chavhanga have opted for a scrum? If so, where would it be?

18.6 SCRUM ALTERNATIVE

(a) The team of the player who made the mark may choose to take a scrum.

(b) Where is the scrum. If the mark is in the field of play, the scrum is at the place of the mark, but at least 5 metres from the touchline. If the mark is in-goal, the scrum is 5 metres from the goal line on a line through the mark, and at least 5 metres from the touchline.

(c) Who throws in. The team of the player who made the mark throws the ball in.

Could Chavhanga have tapped the ball on the mark and then grounded it to get the 22?

He could have tapped and grounded the ball but the result would have been a five-metre scrum to the Reds.

Law 21.4 (f) Kick taken in the in-goal. When a penalty or free kick is taken in the team’s in-goal and a defending player by foul play prevents an opponent from scoring a try, a penalty try is awarded.

10. Too early?

The Reds put the ball into the scrum. Don’t worry about the crooked feed – nobody else is. Rickie Januarie, the Stormers’ scrumhalf, takes up a position away from the scrum.

Initially when Januarie takes up his position he is in front of the rear foot of Robbie Diack, the Stormers’ eighthman, but then Januarie gets behind him, edging across the field.

The referee says he went too early.

In being detached from the scrum as he was, Januarie has three options:

i. Stay on the put in side and behind the ball – within 1m off the scrum. He did not do this.  He did not stay within 1m and fanned out – guilty!

ii. Go to the other side but stay behind the last feet and within 1m off the scrum. Not relevant in this case because he stayed on the same side of the scrum.

iii. Move back to the 5m off-side line . He did not – guilty!