Fair contest at the tackle
A contest for possession is enshrined in the laws of the game. Liam Byrne of Leinster writes to us deploring the absence of a fair contest. We shall first quote from the preamble to the Laws of the Game on Principles of the game and then what Liam Byrne has to say about a fair contest at the tackle.
Principles of the Game
Contest and Continuity
The contest for possession of the ball is one of Rugby’s key features. These contests occur throughout the game and in a number of different forms:
* in contact
* in general play
* when play is restarted at scrums, line-outs and kick-offs.
Liam Byrne writes:
With the World Cup coming up, is there any chance of getting a discussion going on the way that defending and attacking teams are treated by referees when it comes to maintaining possession or forcing turnovers. Despite protestations to the contrary, it would appear that referees are allowing the team in possession a fair bit of latitude to enable them maintain that possession.
I highlight some examples below but I am not having a go at the respective officials, I am more concerned with the mindset that the authorities are fostering.
In the France-Scotland game in the Six Nations, neither team seemed to be under pressure to release when tackled. There were several incidents where an isolated tackled player was allowed to hold on until his support arrived.
On Saturday morning, there were two incidents that I remember. Both are “infringements” by New Zealand but I am not accusing the referee of bias as there were similar incidents involving South Africa that I cannot remember the details of.
Firstly, early in the game New Zealand brought the ball into a tackle and a ruck followed. The ball came out of the ruck and was loose. A New Zealand sentinel grabbed hold of a South African player and prevented him from getting to the ball.
In the second half, there was a ruck when the New Zealand player, acting as half back, went up the side of the ruck to get the ball out of it. I have some sympathy with half backs not always being able to stay completely behind the hindmost foot in order to keep the game going but this incident required a fairly considerable trip up the side of the ruck.
O’Neill is back at the Australian Rugby Union anxious to get back to entertaining the punters. I am a punter who is a season ticket holder at Leinster and who spends an unpaid 40 hours a month administering a first division club in Ireland. I enjoy watching rugby when it is a contest, I do not enjoy watching the equivalent of basketball without the shot clock.
