Law Discussion - whose ball?
Christmas time or not, peace or not, Harlequins against Leicester Tigers at Twickenham was still a tense contest. We have some law bits to talk about from that match and from the match at Vicarage Road between the Saracens and London Irish.
1. Scrum mess
We touched briefly on scrums last week when Bath played Sale Sharks. This week the mess was at Vicarage Road.
The figures tell a lot of the story but don’t tell altogether the time spent – and wasted -0 in getting the ball back into play. The IRB seeks to speed the game up but the time taken for scrums and line-outs has yet to be satisfactorily reduced.
Bath vs Sale Sharks: 16 scrums: 11 resets, 14 collapses, 3 free kicks, 5 penalties.
Saracens vs London Irish: 16 scrums, 14 resets, 15 collapses, 2 free kicks 3 penalties.
That makes 32 scrums with 38 unnatural endings. That’s not great at all.
The unnatural endings do not include collapses because often if the ball is available when a scrum collapses, play goes on. Otherwise there would have been even more unnatural endings!
In the match between Bath vs Sale Sharks, three scrums out of 16 managed without further intervention by the referee, In the match between Saracens and London Irish the success rate was also three out of 16.
It’s just as well that there are not more scrums.
The Twickenham match between Harlequins and Leicester Tigers was comparatively delightful. There were 11 scrums with 5 resets, 5 collapses, no free kicks and 2 penalties. There were only 7 out of 11 unnatural endings. Only.
2. Whose ball?
a. London Irish are tackled and Saracens pile in. It seems that the ball is coming back to them from the squirming heap of bodies. But the ball sticks tight and the referee blows his whistle. He gives the scrum to London Irish – to Saracen Chagrin.
The referee says:”It has to go to the attacking side.”
The way the ball is awarded after a tackle does not depend on who had the ball when the referee blew his whistle.
Law 15.8 DOUBT ABOUT FAILURE TO COMPLY
If the ball becomes unplayable at a tackle and there is doubt about which player did not conform to Law, the referee orders a scrum immediately with the throw in by the team that was moving forward prior to the stoppage or, if no team was moving forward, by the attacking team.
In case that squirming mass was a ruck at some stage, let’s look at the law.
16.7 UNSUCCESSFUL END TO A RUCK
(a) A ruck ends unsuccessfully when the ball becomes unplayable and a scrum is ordered.
The team that was moving forward immediately before the ball became unplayable in the ruck throws in the ball.
If neither team was moving forward, or if the referee cannot decide which team was moving forward before the ball became unplayable in the ruck, the team that was moving forward before the ruck began throws in the ball.
If neither team was moving forward, then the attacking team throws in the ball.
The referee was right.
This happened after 78 minutes.
b. Elvis Seveali’i of London Irish passes to his right. It is a poor pass behind Topsy Ojo and bounces towards touch. Noah Cato of Saracens goes to get the ball which bounces and is in the air beyond the touch-line. Cato bends down and tries to gather the ball with his left hand, his foot on the touch-line. He knocks the ball towards his lowered right hand from which it bounces on his foot and into touch.
Whose ball? Do we play the knock-on?
The touch judge gave the ball in the line-out to Saracens.
Right?
Law 19 DEFINITIONS
The ball is in touch when it is not being carried by a player and it touches the touchline or anything or anyone on or beyond the touchline.
A player in touch may kick or knock the ball, but not hold it, provided it has not crossed the plane of the touchline. The plane of the touchline is the vertical space rising immediately above the touchline.
These are two reasons why the touch judge was right.
The ball crossed the plane of the touchline. Noah was in touch when he played the ball because his foot was on the touchline. The ball became out when it touched Noah. London Irish had put it out. line-out to Saracens, the knock-on irrelevant.
This happened after 34 minutes.
c. This is taken from the match between Dax and Clermont Auvergne the previous weekend.
Clermont Auvergne are penalised and flyhalf Antoine Vignau-Tuquet takes a quick tap and runs forward. He collides with the referee and loses the ball forward.
The referee awarded a scrum to Dax.
Right? Shouldn’t he have allowed Dax to take the kick again? Shouldn’t he have awarded a scrum to Clermont Auvergne for the knock-on?
Law 6.A.10 THE BALL TOUCHING THE REFEREE
(a) If the ball or the ball carrier touches the referee and neither team gains an advantage, play continues.
(b) If either team gains an advantage in the field of play, the referee orders a scrum and the team that last played the ball has the throw-in.
The referee was right.
3. No let-up
A poor, low pass came the way of Glen Jackson of Saracens. He did not try to catch it but nudged it forward with great delicacy. Paul Hodgson of London Irish covered and fell on the rolling ball. Jackson arrivced. He stayed on his feet. He did not fall on Hodgson. He lifted and shoved Hodgson over the line.
The referee awarded a five-metre scrum to Saracens.
Right?
Yes. What Jackson was not allowed to do was fall on Hodgson.
Mercifully there were this time no cries of Let him up.
