Law Discussion: Heineken's last round

For many it was a tense final round of the pool matches of the Heineken Cup as decisions were made about the make-up of the quarterfinals – often terrible weather.

It was different at Newlands where the Saracens played the Stormers on grass in sunshine.

The matches we refer to are Biarritz vs Gloucester, Stade Français vs Ulster, Harlequins vs Scarlets, Ospreys vs Leicester Tigers, Leinster vs Edinburgh, Bath vs Toulouse and Stormers vs Saracens.

1. Catcher again

Scott Hamilton of Leicester Tigers kicks high and chases. Mike Philips of the Ospreys catches the ball and immediately Hamilton slams into him but both players stay on their feet. James Hook joins to support Philips.

It is a maul.

Other players arrive and the maul collapses. The referee decides the situation is unplayable.

He blow his whistle, saying: “You catch. It’s a maul, your ball.” And he has a gesture for each stage.

The explanation is complete, succinct and correct.

Law 17.6 (h) Scrum after a maul when catcher is held. If a player catches the ball direct from an opponent’s kick, except from a kick off or a drop out, and the player is immediately held by an opponent, a maul may form. Then if the maul remains stationary, stops moving forward for longer than 5 seconds, or if the ball becomes unplayable, and a scrum is ordered, the team of the ball catcher throws in the ball.
‘Direct from an opponent’s kick’ means the ball did not touch another player or the ground before the player caught it.
If a maul moves into the player’s in-goal, where the ball is touched down or becomes unplayable, a 5-metre scrum is formed. The attacking team throws in the ball.

This happened after 7 minutes.

2. Whose ball?

Biarritz out the ball into a scrum but Gloucester take the tighthead. The ball is on their side and in the scrum but the scrum collapses.

The referee can detect no infringement and so orders the scrum reset. Whose ball?

Law 20.4 (g) If a scrum collapses or lifts up into the air without penalty a further scrum will be ordered and the team who originally threw in the ball will throw the ball in again.

The reset scrum is awarded to Biarritz.

That is what happened in this instance.

This happened after 56 minutes.

3. Cynical

You will have referees refer to an infringement as cynical.

The Ospreys are on the attack and the ball comes back to them from a ruck. As it emerges Toby Flood of Leicester Tigers, falling back swings a boot and kicks the ball downfield.

The referee penalises him and sends him to the sin bin.

Cynical does not come clearer than that.

Cynical defined: Any action by a player which denies the ball-carrying team a definite opportunity to use the ball as they want in an attacking context.

The recommendation for a cynical act is a penalty kick and a yellow card.

That is what happened to Flood.

This happened after 46 minutes.

4.  Mark

a. Damien Traille of Biarritz leans forward to catch a high kick by Gloucester. His left foot is well our of the 22, his right foot just touching the infield edge of the 22-metre line.

He calls mark.

The referee allows him the mark.

Law 18 DEFINITION
To make a mark, a player must be on or behind that player’s 22-metre line. A player with one foot on the 22-metre line or behind it is considered to be ‘in the 22’. The player must make a clean catch direct from an opponent’s kick and at the same time shout “Mark”.

Traille had a foot on the line.

b. Bath play Toulouse at the Rec wrecked with drenching rain. Tall Bath wing Matt Banahan  catches the ball and claims a mark. He fumbles the ball in his hands. The mark is given.

Right?

If that is right what does clean mean in: The player must make a clean catch direct from an opponent’s kick and at the same time shout “Mark”?

It probably means a catch without a fumble – otherwise the word clean is wasting its time there.

In this case there was a fumble and so there should have been no mark.

This happened after 33 minutes

5. Where’s the place?

a. About 15 metres inside their half, Noel Oelschig of Stade Français kicks low downfield and there is a chase. Julien Arias chases hardest and fastest but he has a head start. When Oelschig kicked he was about half a metre ahead of O’Connor.

Clinton Schifcofske of Ulster comes across to save the situation. He grabs the ball about 8 metres outside of his 22.

The referee penalises Stade Français for being offside. That was the correct decision.

He awarded the penalty about two metres inside the Stade Français half.

Was that correct?

Law 11.1 OFFSIDE IN GENERAL PLAY
(a) A player who is in an offside position is liable to penalty only if the player does one of three things:
• Interferes with play or,
• Moves forward, towards the ball or Fails to comply with the 10-Metre law (law 11.4).
• A player who is in an offside position is not automatically penalised.
• A player who receives an unintentional throw forward is not offside.
• A player can be offside in the in-goal.

(b) Offside and interfering with play. A player who is offside must not take part in the game. This means the player must not play the ball or obstruct an opponent.

(c) Offside and moving forward. When a team mate of an offside player has kicked ahead, the offside player must not move towards opponents who are waiting to play the ball, or move towards the place where the ball lands, until the player has been put onside.

The player is offside when he moves forward. Arias was off-side when he ran ahead.

That is where he should be penalised – about 13 metres closer to the Stade Français goal-line than the place where the kick was given. Niall O’Connor missed the kick. He may well have ben grateful of the extra 13 metres.

This happened after 21 minutes.

b. Late in the match the Scarlets move the ball in their own 22 and Stephen Jones chips ahead from about 10 metres from his line. The ball bounces about two metres outside the 22 and is then played by a Harlequin about 10 metres beyond the 22.

Regan King of the Scarlets is outside Jones when he kicked and ahead of him. He chases to apply pressure.

The referee penalised King where he had run forward.

This seems the right decision.

c. The Stormers play the Saracens art Newlands. Justin Marshall of the Saracens passes the ball back from outside the 22 to Glen Jackson who is inside the 22. From about two metres inside his 22, Jackson kicks the ball directly into touch.

Correctly the assistant referee does not allow a gain in ground but goes back.

He takes up a position opposite where Marshall passed the ball back.

Right?

Wrong.

The place should be opposite the place where Jackson kicked the ball.

Law 19.1 (b) When a team causes the ball to be put into that team’s 22.  When a defending player plays the ball from outside the 22 and it goes into that player’s 22 or in-goal area without touching an opposition player and then that player or another player from that team kicks the ball directly into touch before it touches an opposition player or a tackle takes place or a ruck or maul is formed, there is no gain in ground.

That’s a pretty turgid way of saying the kick is opposite the place where the ball is kicked. That’s what no gain in ground means.

The line-out is opposite the place where Jackson kicked the ball and it should be clearly shown as within the Saracens 22 so that there is no confusion about subsequent play should the Saracens win the ball.

6. No-drop drop-out

Ulster miss a kick at goal. The balk is thrown to Pierre Rabadan who is standing just on his side of the 22-metre line. He puts the ball down and taps it.

The referee stopped play, saying: “The ball was not kicked. Nothing happened.” He tells Stade Français to drop our properly.

Law 13.12 DROP OUT INCORRECTLY TAKEN

If the ball is kicked with the wrong type of kick, or from the wrong place, the opposing team has two choices:
To have another drop out, or
To have a scrum at the centre of the 22-metre line and they throw in the ball.

Something had happened. The drop-out was taken with the wrong type of kick. The sanction for that would be to offer Ulster the option of allowing Stade Français to drop out again or have a scrum at the middle of the 22-metre line.

You can easily imagine what Ulster would choose.

This happened after 7 minutes.

7. Wrong-way penalty

There is a tackle, Fabien Pelous is there reaching a long arm over the heap of players to the ball which is on the ground. Two bath players – Shaun Berne and Daniel Browne – make eager contact with Pelous who then gets the ball up in his big hand. The referee penalises Pelous.

Commentator 3, making the point that Pelous was on his feet: “Penalty went the wrong way for me.”

Commentator 2 agreed with him.

Pelous was on his feet but the nature of the play had changed, as the referee warned. It had changed from a tackle to a ruck. This is an important change because offside lines come into play and, as far as Pelous is concerned, hands may no longer be used.

Calling ruck is a serious decision for a referee.

8. Trying to be quick

a. Martin Roberts of the Scarlets puts the ball skew into a scrum and – alleluia – the referee awards a free kick to the Harlequins. about a metre to the right of the scrum, Danny care takes a kick quickly and is off. But the referee stops play and insists that the kick is taken at the right place.

This happened after 44 minutes.

b. The Scarlets concede a free kick at a scrum. This time Care takes it behind the scrum. But the referee stops play and insist that the kick be taken quickly.

This happened after 76 minutes.

There are some points:

* It is annoying when play is stopped when the players want to play quickly.
* The players have a right to play quickly and the referee has no right to stop them unless there is an infringement.
* If the free kick is taken from the wrong place, a scrum is awarded to the other side. (Have you seen that happen? It belongs with foot-up  in the obsolete bin.)

Law 21.2 WHERE PENALTY AND FREE KICKS ARE TAKEN
(a) The kicker must take the penalty or free kick at the mark or anywhere behind it on a line through the mark. If the place for a penalty or free kick is within 5 metres of the opponents’ goal line,
the mark for the kick is 5 metres from the goal line, opposite the place of infringement.

(b) When a penalty or free kick is awarded for an infringement in in-goal, the mark for the kick is in the field of play, 5 metres from the goal line, in line with the place of infringement.

Penalty: Any infringement by the kicker’s team results in a scrum at the mark. The opposing team throws in the ball.

The second kick looked as close to being in the right place as one could be but then the referee may have been concerned with the danger at the scrum – not that it seemed to be the case.

The remark about letting players play quickly is relevant to the quick throw-in from touch.

9. Advantage

Advantage is at the referee’s discretion, which means that he is always right. But there are some worth debating.

There were two in the match between Stade Français and Ulster.

a. Stade Français knock on and Ulster get the ball. From outside his 22 Isaac Boss passes back to Niall O’Connor who is inside his 22 and about 10 metres back from Boss. There is no pressure on him and he has his backs outside of him.

All this time the referee has an arm out to show advantage. O’Connor kicks to his right. It is a long kick going towards touch. The referee calls “advantage over”.

Julien Arias of Stade Français is at the touch line and tries to keep the ball in, but fails to do so. The assistant referee indicates that O’Connor has kicked out on the full because Ulster had taken the ball back into their 22.

Stade Français are alert and run down towards the Ulster line and take a quick throw-in and look well positioned to score a try.

The referee stops play and says: “”I called advantage over but wrongly.”  He then goes back to a scrum for Ulster.

Why on earth advantage was not over is hard to fathom. O’Connor had several ways he could have played. He was under no pressure. He chose to kick the ball towards touch.

Law 8.1 ADVANTAGE IN PRACTICE
(a) The referee is sole judge of whether or not a team has gained an advantage. The referee has wide discretion when making decisions.

(b) Advantage can be either territorial or tactical.

(c) Territorial advantage means a gain in ground.

(d) Tactical advantage means freedom for the non-offending team to play the ball as they wish.

O’Connor had the freedom to make many choices. That he may have made the wrong one is entirely his own fault.

Calling Advantage over is a decision. Then, having called it over, is the referee allowed to change his decision?

Law 6.A.6 REFEREE ALTERING A DECISION

The referee may alter a decision when an assistant referee has raised the flag to signal touch or an act of foul play.

That could have been the case here if the referee had thought that the ball was not out and then found it was really out, but then overruling himself is not wrong.

Were Stade Français entitled to race ahead and throw in – backwards, as it happened – quickly from touch?

Yes.

This happened after 68 minutes.

b. Ulster knock on and Stade Français get the ball. They have options and make two passes before knocking on. The referee went back to the scrum for Stade Français.

This may have been a more realistic decision as he had not called Advantage over, presumably because it was not over.

This happened after 75 minutes.

10. Changing balls

Ulster are penalised and Lionel Beauxis of Stade Français is to kick at goal.

He does not like the ball which was in play, pressing it to suggest that it was soft. Somebody runs on with another ball. Beauxis tests it and goals the penalty.

OK?

Law 21.3 (c) The kicker must use the ball that was in play unless the referee decides it was defective.
Penalty: Any infringement by the kicker’s team results in a scrum at the mark. The opposing team throws in the ball.

Law 2.6 SPARE BALLS
Spare balls may be available during a match, but a team must not gain or attempt to gain an unfair advantage by using them or changing them.

Most top matches have about five spare balls. The one in play is an arbitrary matter. Using one not in play is hardly getting an unfair advantage.

This happened after 56 minutes.