Law Discussion - from Premiership
We have a few short incidents from two of England’s Premiership matches to discuss this week.
The matches are Sale Sharks vs Worcester Warriors and Leeds Carnegie vs Leicester Tigers.
We have so far this week given some statistics from Wales vs South Africa and discussed some incidents from that match. There are also clips from the match on www.sareferees.co.za.
The commentator at the match described the Premiership as “the world’s leading domestic league competition”. It is an interesting judgement which may well be open to debate.
1. Knees up
The hookers meet with aggression. Aleki Lutui of the Worcester Warriors has the ball and charges at Sebastien Bruno of Sale Sharks. As he gets to Bruno, Lutui thrusts a knee forward at Bruno. Danie Rossouw of South Africa does the same thing.
OK?
It’s up to the referee, of course, to determine dangerous play in such a case but if a player charged at an opponent with his free forward leading as a battering implement, he would be penalised. Why not the same for the knee.
Then where does the hand-off come in?
Law 10.4 DANGEROUS PLAY AND MISCONDUCT
(a) Punching or striking. A player must not strike an opponent with the fist or arm, including the elbow, shoulder, head or knee(s).
Penalty: Penalty Kick
(e) Dangerous tackling. A player must not tackle an opponent early, late or dangerously.
Playing a player without the ball is dangerous play.
(f) Playing an opponent without the ball. Except in a scrum, ruck or maul, a player must not hold, or push, or charge into, or obstruct an opponent not carrying the ball.
Penalty: Penalty Kick
(k) Acts contrary to good sportsmanship. A player must not do anything that is against the spirit of good sportsmanship in the playing enclosure.
Penalty: Penalty Kick
The hand-off is not there. Mode of Play?
Law 7 Mode of Play
PLAYING A MATCH
A match is started by a kick-off.
After the kick-off, any player who is on-side may take the ball and run with it.
Any player may throw it or kick it.
Any player may give the ball to another player.
Any player may tackle, hold or shove an opponent holding the ball.
Any player may fall on the ball.
Any player may take part in a scrum, ruck, maul or line-out.
Any player may ground the ball in an in-goal.
Whatever a player does must be in accordance with the Laws of the Game.
It’s not there either. Perhaps it just happens by custom, a sort of tacit permission. It’s been there for years and years.
It happened in the first minute of the match.
2. In or out of touch?
Shane Drahm of the Worcester Warriors kicks a bouncing ball towards the touch-line on his right. Ben Foden the Sale Sharks’ fullback waits for the ball. It bounces up into his arms and he catches it, left foot on the touch-=line. He immediately sheds the ball infield.
The touch judge raises his flag.
Right?
Yes. Foden was in touch and he held the ball. The ball was put.
Whose put-in?
Sale Sharks put the ball in because Worcester Warriors kicked it. When Foden caught the ball it was in touch because he was in touch.
It happened 13 minutes into the match.
3. No quick tap?
The referee is playing advantage when Dean Schofield, of Sale Sharks is off-side. Worcester Warriors scrumhalf Matt Powell passes the ball straight back to flyhalf Shane Drahm. Drahm wants the penalty and drops the ball down onto the ground.
The referee blows the whistle for the penalty. Drahm grabs the ball up and runs to where the referee is signalling the penalty. taps and runs.
The referee blows the whistle and calls him back, saying: “You can’t drop it down and go quickly. You’ve knocked it down on purpose. They’ve got no defences./ You put it down and you get the penalty. No problem at all.”
Big problem. What in law is there to stop Drahm doing what Drahm did? Schofield had offended and was penalised.
The idea of a quick tap is to catch the defences napping. That is part of the penalty they pay for offending.
Nothing in the law gives the referee the right to stop the quick penalty the way he did.
It happened after about 50 minutes of play.
4. Drop-out
Charlie Hodgson of Sale Sharks is about a metre infield from his goal-line. He kicks but Matt Powell of Worcester Warriors charges the kick down.
The ball goes dead.
The referee orders a drop-out.
OK?
Yes.
Powell had played the ball in the field of play back into the Sale Sharks in-goal where it went dead.
5. Scrum or drop-out
Play was broken and suddenly Johne Murphy of Leicester Tigers went racing through as Leeds opened up for him. He was well over the line, apparently certain to score and started his dive when suddenly Apo Satala of Leeds Carnegie hit him from the side. The ball dislodged from Murphy’s grasp and went forward and went dead.
The referee awarded a five-metre scrum.
Right?
Yes. It was a knock-on over the line and so a five-metre scrum to Leeds.
What if Satala had actually knocked the ball out of Murphy’s grasp?
It would have taken a brave referee indeed to rule that way but if it had happened, then the referee would have ruled a drop-out, because Murphy.
