Law Discussion: body weight
Before we go any further we should remind ourselves that sport is only possible because human beings are involved and human beings can make mistakes. Perfect people could not play sport against each other! All human beings make mistakes – players, referees, selectors, administrators, parents, the Pope and even commentators. It is the stuff of sport.
Commentating is not easy as the word once said stays said forever and people tend to believe commentators the way they tend to believe a newspaper. Those commentator believers during the Rugby World Cup run into millions. Commentators have millions of believers – instant evangelism on a huge scale.
It is interesting to hear criticism by spectators of referees couched in the same terms that the commentator used!
Here is a case in point, one we devoutly hope will not become practice, as it borders on the bizarre.
Referees often use a form of verbal shorthand. They have terms like the gate, truck-'n-trailer, swimming, running around, lazy running, double movement and preserving body weight. These terms are not law and have the danger of inadequacy/half truth and in some cases are not even necessary.
You will not find body weight in the law book, any more than you will find double movement or losing control.
The body weight thing developed from this piece of law:
Law 15.6 OTHER PLAYERS
(a) After a tackle, all other players must be on their feet when they play the ball. Players are on their feet if no other part of their body is supported by the ground or players on the ground.
Sanction: Penalty kick
The requirement to being on your feet extends to the tackle (as above) and to joining the ruck and to acting against a player lying on the ground with the ball and behaving in the maul.
This is a long preamble to the incident we have in mind.
Australia play Fiji and the Fijians are battering at the Australian line. They are close and one by one they are picking the ball up and attacking the Australian line. As they do so they dive low for the line. That means that defenders have to be low to stop them.
Two of those defenders are Michael Hooper and David Pocock and they are effective in stopping Fijian invaders.
The commentator explains that defenders need to be behind the rear foot of their player in the ruck and goes on to say: "You can't also have your hands on the ground. You can see how the Australian players are down in the starting blocks as if they're at the 100-metre start. You can't have your hands on the ground in that situation, beyond the last feet, because you're not supporting your body weight."
This situation has nothing at all to do with supporting body weight. It's not about playing the ball at a tackle. Supporting your body weight is only in certain circumstances. Otherwise a player who falls on the ball should be penalised and so should the player diving to score a try or diving to tacklle.
And hands on the ground beyond the last feet?
We should look at offside at a ruck as there is no maul here and there is no offside at a tackle. That leaves the ruck, which is the case.
Law 16.5 OFFSIDE AT THE RUCK
(a) The offside line. There are two offside lines parallel to the goal-lines, one for each team. Each offside line runs through the hindmost foot of the hindmost player in the ruck. If the hindmost foot of the hindmost player is on or behind the goal-line, the offside line for the defending team is the goal-line.
(b) Players must either join a ruck, or retire behind the offside line immediately. If a player loiters at the side of a ruck, the player is offside.
(c) Players joining or rejoining the ruck. A player joining a ruck must do so from behind the foot of the hindmost team-mate in the ruck. A player may join alongside this hindmost player. If a player joins the ruck from the opponents’ side, or in front of the hindmost teammate, the player is offside. A player may bind onto an opposition player providing the player is not otherwise offside.
Sanction: Penalty kick on the offending team’s offside line
(d) Players not joining the ruck. If a player is in front of the offside line and does not join the ruck, the player must retire behind the offside line at once. If a player who is behind the offside line oversteps it and does not join the ruck the player is offside.
behind – that is an important preposition in this context. What does it mean.
The Laws of the Game have defined it:
Beyond or behind or in front of a position: Means with both feet, except where the context makes that inappropriate.
With both feet.
Not hands – feet.
From that it seems that the baboon position, leaning forward with hands on the ground is not a part of offside. They are not playing the ball and so body weight does not come into the reckoning.
