Law Discussion - Day 15

There were two matches with exciting finishes on Day 15 of the World Cup – and a bit of controversy in the first one, enough to bear talking about.

1. Time, gentlemen

Morgan Williams had nasty things to say about the referee and his timekeeping in this match when Japan scored at the end and converted from far out for a draw. He complained that the referee had let the match run beyond the 80 minutes.

In fact it was the television which let the time run beyond the 80 minutes. The time on the television screen is not the official time at all. It is the time produced by an employee of the television company and several times has differed from what the referee has applied. Sometimes the final whistle has gone before the 80 minutes has appeared on the television screen and sometimes quite some time afterwards, as happened at the Stade Chaban-Delmas in Bordeaux on Tuesday.

The time is kept by a timekeeper who is officially appointed to do the job. He is in contact with the referee and able to keep him up with the time. He will tell the referee when time is up.

The system used in some countries of having a siren to indicate the end of the match eliminates problems of time. It is clearly not the referee who is the timekeeper.

It also is possible in some countries for the timekeeper to be linked to the stadium clock and in some cases for the television time to be linked to the timekeeper.

The timekeeper, whose sole job it is, is in touch with the referee. He will pick up the “time-outs” – for injury, for substitutions, for a chance to chat to players, for touch judges’ reports, replacing clothing and so on. An unofficial timekeeper who has other jobs and is not in contact with the referee may well not pick up on all of those.

The use of a timekeeper is allowed by the Laws of the Game.

Law 5.3 TIME KEEPING

The referee keeps the time but may delegate the duty to either or both the touch judges and/or the official time-keeper, in which case the referee signals to them any stoppage of time or time lost. In matches without an official time-keeper, if the referee is in doubt as to the correct time the referee consults either or both of the touch judges and may consult others but only if the touch judges cannot help.

There are professional ways of doing things.

Tom Innes of London writes:

“Please can someone, anyone, everyone get the organisers to sort out the Match Clocks so that everyone knows 80 minutes means 80 minutes, with the match ending at the next breakdown. At the moment it’s farcical, it’s been the case in many games, and it was only a matter of time before it affected a result, as indeed it did in last night’s Canada/ Japan match (the fact that this was a 4th/5th place ‘play-off’ doesn’t make it OK). Are they really going to wait until the same thing happens in the knock-out stages, eliminating a team from the tournament?”

2. Back over the dead-ball line

Japan throw everything into the attack. They go right. The Canadians are defending desperately.

Hare Makiri, Japan’s flank, chips ahead into the in-goal area. The Japanese fullback Go Aruga chases the ball with Christian Loamanu just behind him and Canadians scurrying back. The ball bounces high – higher than Morgan Williams is tall. Williams reaches up with both hands and bats the ball over the dead-ball line as Aruga bangs into his back.

The referee then consults the TMO, asking him if there was foul play in in-goal.

The TMO advises that Williams had batted the ball over the dead-ball line and so the referee penalised Williams five metres from the Canadian line.

There is a lot to talk about here. Let’s accept – because it seems plainly to have been the case – that Williams used his hands to propel the ball over the dead-ball line.

Is that penalisable?

James Neville wrote:

“In the dying minutes of Canada vs Japan the ball was chipped into the Canadian in goal area by a Japanese player. There was a race for the ball and the Canadian Scrum half got there first and slapped the ball over the dead ball line. It went to the video ref who awarded a penalty to Japan on the five metre line for deliberately punching the ball dead. I know it is a penalty to deliberately punch or throw the ball over the sideline from the field of play but I thought that you could punch the ball over the dead ball line from the in goal area. In fact I know I have seen this done several times over the years.”

Law 10.2 (c) Throwing into touch. A player must not intentionally knock, place, push or throw the ball with his arm or hand into touch, touch-in-goal, or over the dead-ball line.

It has been penalisable for about 40 years.

But is it matter for the TMO to consider?

Yes, the protocol includes acts of foul play in in-goal as part of the TMO’s area of adjudication.

But is this foul play?

This action falls within Law 10 and Law 10 deals with foul play. What Williams did falls under foul play.

But all was not all right. Where is the penalty given?

Law 10.2

Penalty: Penalty Kick on the 15-metre line if the offence is between the 15-metre line and the touch-line, or, at the place of the infringement if the offence occurred elsewhere in the field of play, or five metres from the goal-line and at least 15 metres from the touch-line if the infringement occurred in in-goal.

The place of the penalty should have been 15 metres in from touch.