Law Discussion - the headbutt
When Scotland played France in Edinburgh there was a headbutt which has provoked some questions from readers, enough to suggest a separate discussion on the matter.
There will be other points of law to discuss from Week 1 of the 2008 Six Nations.
The TMO and Law 10
There were two occasions over the weekend when the referee referred incidents of foul play to the television match official.
a. France attack down the right. Vincent Clerc passes to Cedric Heymans who passes back to Clerc who scores. Then strong emotion breaks out amongst the players, especially Andrew Henderson of Scotland and Damien Traille of France.
(This happens after about 12 minutes of play. If you do look it up, it would be wise to ignore the commentators and watch the action as they are not without at least a semblance of bias.)
In the lead-up to the try, Traille is ahead of Henderson who tries to pull him out of the way. Traille pushes out his left hand at Henderson. As Traille goes to shove Clerc at the line, Henderson bumps into Traille. Traille then pushes at Henderson. They are in the in-goal, grabbing each other by the front of the jerseys and at close quarters. Henderson then appears to butt Traille with his head, causing several players to register anger.
The referee refers the matter to the television match official.
The referee says: “I have awarded a try. We’ll start with a kick-off to Scotland unless you can tell me there was an event of foul play to make me change my mind.”
After the conversion, the referee again calls time-out and the TMO reports to him: “No.12 of Scotland made a small headbutt into the French player after the try was scored.”
The referee asks the TMO for his recommendation, saying that he would “restart with a penalty on the half-way line to France”.
TMO: “Definitely a penalty.”
b. Perpignan play Montauban. Late in the second half Sebastien Fauque tries to clear well within his 22, but Guillaume Vilaceca of Perpignan charges the kick down. The ball bounces high inside the Montauban in-goal. Vilaceca and Johan Dalla-Riva of Montauban jump for the ball. Dalla-Riva reaches up with his left hand and slaps the ball over the dead-ball line.
The referee consults the television match official (arbitre video) who tells him that Dalla-Riva had knocked the ball over the dead-ball line.
The referee awards a penalty try.
First point: The International Rugby Board’s TMO protocol allows the referee to consult the TMO for foul play in in-goal. A headbutt is foul play and knocking the ball over the dead-ball line is foul play. Both fall under Law 10.
Then:
a. The referee was correct to award the penalty where he did award it because the headbutt had happened after the try had been scored. The penalty for foul play in in-goal would be where the ball would next come into play, which was at the middle of the half-way line.
b. The referee was quite entitled to award a penalty try for Dalla-Riva’s act.
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.
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.
A penalty try must be awarded if the offence prevents a try that would probably otherwise have been scored.
Then:
a. To many it was surprising that there was no citing of Henderson. Rugby has always been a rough game but one of its virtues was the self-control it required. It has always been a manly game, and so it tended to accept the man-to-man punch.
It also allowed for what the New Zealanders euphemistically called ‘rucking’, putting boots on players blocking the ball. Danie Craven once said to a referee: “Why do you want to penalise that? He’s doing your job for you.” It was sore but not normally damaging and it discouraged people from killing the ball. Now there are penalties and citings and suspensions for doing stamping/trampling.
There were always limits to the physical force applied to opponents. Biting was out, so was spitting, so was eye-gouging, so was kicking and so was headbutting. They were no-nos, looked on with rugby revulsion.
But in this case headbutting does not warrant citing. Maybe it was because it was described as a “small headbutt” – just as Santiago of Italy’s senior team got a yellow card for punching and Alberto Cazzola of Italy’s Under-20 a red card for punching. Obviously the degree of violence in some violent acts is worse than in others.
Yet it was the act itself rather than the violence or potential injury that brought great condemnation in the case of biting and spitting and so, too, of headbutting.
There is a great deal to take into account.
Clearly the referee’s discretion comes into play.
The referee, too, usually has a moment to sum up what has happened and gone, which may lead him to resort to the safe option of a yellow card and leave further action to the citing commissioner.
In the case of a referral to the TMO is there is no such pressure on the referee. There is time to view at a slow speed and from different angles. The referee then has the chance to do more or less what the match commissioner would do.
It seems that in the Henderson case the referee, the TMO and the citing commissioner were in agreement – that what Henderson did was not serious enough to warrant a red card.
b. Why was Dalla-Riva not sent off? There the law is explicit:
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 similar offence is committed, or sent off. After a caution a player is temporarily suspended from the match 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.
The penalty try was awarded because Dalla-Riva’s foul play prevented a try that would probably have been scored. The law required him to be cautioned and temporarily suspended or sent off.
