McCaw try: Referees in public spat

At the heart of the dispute is whether All Black captain Richie McCaw's match-winning try against the Springboks at Ellis Park at the weekend was from a legal move.

Jonathan Kaplan, a former international referee who holds the record for the most Test matches, cast doubt on the legality of the five-pointer – scored in the 73rd minute, with New Zealand trailing 17-20. The try, conversion and another late penalty gave the Kiwis a 27-20 victory.

Kaplan's argument is that McCaw, as receiver, was inside the two-metre mark – as stipulated in the laws. According to the South African the All Black captain also moved before the ball left the thrower's hands – two points on which the try should have been declared illegal.

This was countered by New Zealander Ian Cook, a retired player and referee, with a qualification of a Level Two in refereeing.

While Kaplan, on his RatetheRef website, stuck to a simple law argument, Cook went to the extreme to make his point – with screen grabs and graphics that explains how McCaw's try was actually legal.

It is not the first time Cook – who wrote on his blog on rugbyrefs.com – has disagreed with Kaplan on law issues, but it is the first time that the "debate" has exploded on the Internet and social media as this one has.

Kaplan fired the first salvo in his weekly comments section.

"As a receiver, he [McCaw] has to stand two metres away from the line-out," Kaplan said.

"It is questionable whether he was.

"Moreover, he cannot move into the line-out to receive the ball until the ball has left the hands of the thrower. It is clear he does start moving before the ball has left the hands of the hooker."

Kaplan also had a go at the referee for missing the 'transgression' and Bok skipper Schalk Burger for not questioning it.

"The referee never had a clue what was going on.

"One can see with his body language, that he was quite happy to award the try. Not even a referral! No TMO intervention either.

"And, crucially, where was our leadership to INSIST that this important and defining score be verified.

"Now I really like Schalk Burger as a human being, and I admire him as a rugby player, so I don't really want to be too critical, but these are the moments that matter.

"I'm not sure whether he was empowered to challenge, or whether he did at all, but we needed a result here and there was a window of opportunity to get it, and we didn't identify it."

Cook was equally forceful in his retort to Kaplan's column.

"I reject any contention that McCaw was only one metre from the line-out and that he moved toward the line-out before the ball was thrown," the Kiwi said, then providing what he feels is proof that the All Black skipper was in fact legally positioned.

He used three images, which Cook said spanned a time of less than 0.3 of a second!!

"The line-out – therefore LoT – was on the five-metre line," he said, adding: " The line-out players are required to be 0.5 metre from the LoT – therefore McCaw was required to be positioned two metres beyond them, at 2.5 metres from the LoT.

"KEY: The red vertical markers are at 2.5 metre intervals as measured from the goal line. The red line parallel to the five-metre line is 2.5 metres from it. McCaw was required to be standing at least this far from the LoT. The yellow marker is 1.5 metres from the LoT (one metre from the line-out). The BFG et al claim that McCaw was this close.

"These measurements and marks are positionally corrected for perspective distortion.

"McCaw can be seen to be CLEARLY beyond the 2.5-metre line and therefore beyond two metres from the line-out," the Kiwi said.

"He is certainly not as close as 1.5 metres from the line in the middle of the line-out – thus one metre from the line-out – as the BFG and others have claimed.

"McCaw does move as the ball is thrown, but he is moving parallel to LoT in order to position himself in line with the gap. I see nothing in Law that says the receiver must remain still or cannot move along parallel to the Lot before the ball is thrown so long as he remains between the five-metre and 15-metre lines.

"This is pretty conclusive"

At the beginning of the throwing action:

During the throwing action:

Fractionally after the ball has left the thrower's hands:

Sources: ratetheref.co.za; rugbyrefs.com & brugbydump.com