Law Discussion: Knock/no knock
The Free State Cheetahs score against the Blue Bulls and Louis Fouché kicks off. He kicks off to the right and deep. Freddy Nogoza catches the ball and drops it. The referee blows for a knock-on and awards a scrum five metres from the Free State line.
Right?
Law 12 DEFINITION: KNOCK-ON
A knock-on occurs when a player loses possession of the ball and it goes forward, or when a player hits the ball forward with the hand or arm, or when the ball hits the hand or arm and goes forward, and the ball touches the ground or another player before the original player can catch it.
‘Forward’ means towards the opposing team’s dead ball-line.
Watch what Nogoza does.
He is standing about four metres from his goal-line. He fails to catch the ball which then lands behind him.
Behind.
Nogoza does not move forward but the ball lands behind him. that means the while Nogoza lost possession, the ball did not go forward.
That suggests that it is a not a knock-on.
But the ball bounced forward of the place where Nogoza was stinging.
It does not matter what the ball did after it made contact with the ground.
this is not a knock-on.
The referee is remarkably athletic but the kicked ball would be a long way ahead of him when Nogoza dropped the ball.
It could only have been guesswork to blow for a knock-on from a bad position.
Guessing is always wrong for a referee.
