Law Discussion: kicking away
The incident occurred in an Under-21 match at Newlands on Saturday. It is a delight to discuss it as it is rare and yet excellently handled by the match officials.
Centre Stokkies Hanekom of Western Province runs for the line. He cuts slightly inside and the Boland fullback Sarel Marais tackles him. Hanekom falls short of the line and then stretches out to place the ball, the line well within his reach. Before he places the ball Ruaan Coetzer, the Boland centre, kicks the ball from Hanekom’s grasp.
The referee consults the television match official and asks if a try had been scored or not. The TMO is able to tell him that the try was not scored and that the ball had been kicked from Hanekom’s grasp. He then advises that a penalty try be given.
The referee awards the penalty try.
First what was wrong with what Coetzer did?
Law 22.4 (e) Tackled near the goal line. If a player is tackled near to the opponents’ goal line so that this player can immediately reach out and ground the ball on or over the goal line, a try is scored.
(f) In this situation, defending players who are on their feet may legally prevent the try by pulling the ball from the tackled player’s hands or arms, but must not kick the ball.
“but must not kick the ball.” Coetzer kicked the ball.
He did it deliberately.
Infringing intentionally is a part of foul play.
Law 10.2 UNFAIR PLAY
(a) Intentionally Offending. A player must not intentionally infringe any Law of the Game, or play unfairly. The player who intentionally offends must be either admonished, or cautioned that a send off will result if the offence or a similar offence is committed, or sent off. After a caution a player is temporarily suspended for a period of ten minutes playing time. After a
caution, if the player commits the same or similar offence, the player must be sent off.
Penalty: Penalty Kick
A penalty try must be awarded if the offence prevents a try that would probably otherwise have been scored. A player who prevents a try being scored through foul play must either be cautioned and temporarily suspended or sent off.
Coetzer went off shaking his head, bemused if not amused, and may well not have known the law but, as in general living, ignorance of the law is no excuse. If it were an excuse we could have chaos.
Out of protocol for the TMO to tell the referee what he did tell him?
IRB Protocol Area of Jurisdiction
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.
The TMO must not be requested to provide information on players prior to the ball going into in-goal (except touch in the act of grounding the ball).
The TMO must not be asked to assist in any other decision other than those listed.
It includes “penalty tries after acts of foul play in in-goal.”
It was within protocol.
The referee and the TMO were right.
There is a clip of the incident on www.sareferees.co.za.
