Law Discussion from Heineken Cup

The Heineken Cup went into action over the weekend and inevitably there are just a few points of law discussion which are worthwhile.

1. “Taken back.”

Biarritz kick off, high and straight down the field. Marco Bortolami catches the ball a metre or so outside of his 22. He is then driven back inside his 22. Gloucester gets the ball back and Ian Balshaw kicks out on the full.

The referee had announced that the ball was taken back and the line-out was opposite the place where Balshaw kicked the ball.

Right?

Yes.

That is one of the experimental law variations.

Bortolami took it back and Balshaw kicked it out. If between Bortolami’s take back and Balshaw’s kick the ball had come loose and there had been a tackle or a ruck or a Biarritois had touched the ball, then the line-out would have been where the ball went out.

2. Of hookers at line-outs

Under the ELVs the team not throwing in the ball must have a player in the tramlines but not closer to the line-out than two metres.

The Law: The player who is in opposition to the player throwing in the ball must stand in the area between the 5-metre line and the touch line but must be 2 metres away from the five-metre line.

The idea of being two metres away is to make it clear that he is not a line-out player. It also prevents him from acting as a ,lifter in the front of the line-out, giving the non-thrower’s jumper a chance to ahead of the thrower’s jumper.

In the match between Biarritz and Gloucester’s, Benoit August of Biarritz is to throw into a line-out. Gareth Cooper of Gloucester stands next to him, which is fine. Before the ball is thrown in, Carlos Nieto, the Gloucester prop, shuffles into the tramline well inside the five-metre line.

As it so happened there was no material effect because Biarritz ran and Jean-Baptiste Gobelet scored a splendid try.

In law terms, Nieto was wrong and liable to a free kick.

3. Harsh commentary

In the match between Edinburgh and Leinster at Murrayfield, Felipe Contepomi kicks low and hard from just inside his half down inside the Edinburgh half where Simon Webster gathers the ball. He is near touch but does not kick out kicking a long way down the field to near the Leinster 22 where Shane Horgan catches the ball and immediately passes the ball infield to Rob Kearney who starts running while the crowd boos because they believe – with justification – that the pass from Horgan to Kearney was forward. Leinster run, Contepomi breaks and O’Driscoll scores a marvellous try as the crowd keep on booing.

The commentator is a famous Scottish international who says: “”Unquestionably a forward pass. You can measure it by the lines on the pitch. Poor, poor decision by the touch judge not to pick that one up.”

First of all a forward pass is the referee’s decision though we have become used to his getting help from his assistants but look at things from the match official’s perspective.

When Contepomi kicked down into the Edinburgh 22 they were on their way there, some 10 metres from the 22.

When Webster kicked the ball travelled to just outside the Leinster 22, about 30 metres downfield from where the match officials were at ground level. They were not perched high up and did not have television.  Everybody knows that the ball travels far faster than a man can.

To have blown the pass forward they would have had to guess, and all referees know that guessing is bad – dishonest in fact.

The commentator returns to it later with some unfair innuendo: “The crowd are looking for a bit of fair play from the ref.”

By the way, by the dispensation allowed in South Africa, the referee could have consulted the TMO about the pass after the try was scored.

4. Push back

Leicester Tigers put the ball into a scrum at the middle of the half-way line. They get a great push on and the referee says to the Osprey backs: “Push back.”

Why?

The ball is still in the scrum. The scrum is not over. By the ELVs the Osprey backs are required to be five metres behind the hindmost foot on their side. Because that foot was getting closer to them, they were required to retreat – to “push back”.

5. TMO’s drop

Shane Williams of the Ospreys kicks a left–footed drop at goal. The ball flies high and hits the upright to Williams’s left. It flies across the gaol at a sharp angle.

The referee consults the television match official who is able to advise that the ball had indeed gone just behind the right upright and was over. It was hard in real time with the naked eye.

But was the referee entitled to ask the TMO?

Yes.

The TMO protocol states:

Area of Adjudication

The areas of adjudication are limited to Law 6. 8 (b), 6.8 (d) and 6.8 (e) and therefore relate to:

Grounding of the ball for try and touch down
Touch, touch-in-goal, ball being made dead during the act of grounding the ball.

This includes situations where a player may or may not have stepped in touch in the act of grounding the ball on or over the goal line.

The TMO could therefore be requested to assist the referee in making the following decisions:

Try
No try and scrum awarded 5 metres
Touch down by a defender
In touch – line-out
Touch-in-goal
Ball dead on or over the dead ball line
Penalty tries after acts of foul play in in-goal
All kicks at goal including dropped goals.

“Including dropped goals”.

5. Obstruction

a. Toby Flood of the Leicester Tigers changes direction and suddenly bursts ahead, slightly to his left past Martin Corry who is in front of him. As Flood approaches where Corry is, James Hook of the Ospreys bangs into Corry’s back. He is close to Flood, close enough to tackle him.

The referee awards a scrum for accidental off-side.

Law 11.6 ACCIDENTAL OFFSIDE
(a) When an offside player cannot avoid being touched by the ball or by a team mate carrying it, the player is accidentally offside. If the player’s team gains no advantage from this, play continues. If the player’s team gains an advantage, a scrum is formed with the opposing team throwing in the ball.

In this case Flood does not seem to have touched Corry but Corry had certainly not tried to be in Hook’s way. He was caught by the speed of events and the scrum seems a perfectly sensible and fair decision which should perhaps be written into law.

b. Lee Byrne of the Ospreys kicks high and long. He chases his kick. As the ball drops Harry Ellis, who is about five metres upfield from where it is dropping, where Geordan Murphy catches the ball, moves to get in Byrne’s way. The referee penalises Ellis and talks to him.

That seems eminently fair. Ellis was not required to evaporate or to stand aside politely for Byrne but he was not allowed to move off his line to clash with Byrne.