Law Discussion: Catch at touchline
Ever seen this before? It is an interesting incident – interesting and complicated.
When outside his 22-metre area, Rudy Paige of the Bulls gets the ball from his forwards and kicks ahead towards the touchline on his right.
Will Genia of the Reds waits for the ball, one foot in touch and one foot in the field of play. The ball drops and Genia puts out his hands to catch and turn it into a 'kicked directly into touch' situation. The ball hits him and jumps up out of his grasp and he then catches it again.
The referee tells Genia that he had to catch the ball cleanly for it to have been directly in touch.
The line-out takes place where Genia caught the ball, with a throw-in to the Bulls.
Let's try to make sense of this.
To do so we are going to look at four relevant definitions from Law 19 which deals with touch.
i. Law 19 DEFINITIONS
The ball is in touch if a player catches the ball and that player has a foot on the touchline or the ground beyond the touchline. If a player has one foot in the field of play and one foot in touch and holds the ball, the ball is in touch.
Genia caught the ball.
Genia had a foot in touch.
ii. Law 19.1 THROW-IN
NO GAIN IN GROUND
(a) Outside a team’s 22, a team member kicks directly into touch. Except for a penalty kick, when a player anywhere in the field of play who is outside the 22 kicks directly into touch, there is no gain in ground. The throw-in is taken either at the place opposite where the player kicked the ball, or at the place where it went into touch, whichever is nearer that player’s goal-line.
Paige was outside his 22 when he kicked the ball.
Genia is in touch when he catches the ball
iii. Law 19 DEFINITIONS
‘Kicked directly into touch’ means that the ball was kicked into touch without landing on the playing area, and without touching a player or the referee.
iv. Law 19 DEFINITIONS
A player in touch may kick or knock the ball, but not hold it, provided it has not crossed the plane of the touchline. The plane of the touchline is the vertical space rising immediately above the touchline.
v. Law 19 DEFINITIONS
The ball is in touch when a player is carrying it and the ball-carrier (or the ball) touches the touchline or the ground beyond the touchline. The place where the ball-carrier (or the ball) touched or crossed the touchline is where it went into touch.
The last two probably explain the match officials' thinking.
From iv: When Genia first played the ball, he was in touch but the ball had not crossed the touchline. That he then played the ball did not mean the ball was in touch.
From v: When Genia caught hold of the ball, it became a ball in touch.
From: iii: The ball had not gone directly into touch from Paige's kick, because when Genia first played the ball it was not in touch but it went into touch when Genia held onto it and was the ball-carrier. That means that Genia took the ball into touch.
And that means a line-out where the ball went into touch, Bulls' throw.
It is coming to a pretty pass when players and match officials have to deal with such hair-splitting in such a rare occurrence.
Why on earth is that 'plane of touch' thing there? It would make life simpler if it were removed.
