Laws from Tri-Nations, Week 3

Three matches in the Tri-Nations played, and three thrillers – and lots of law to talk about.

The big talking points in this match seemed to be the yellow card for Carl Hayman and the scrums.

We dealt with both of those immediately and pretty fully. There is also a clip of the Hayman incident on www.sareferees.co.za.

But there are other incidents to talk about.

We have been asked to give times to the incidents and will do so – as long as the memory holds!

We have given certain statistics for the match as well.

1. Poor McCaw

George Smith of the Wallabies is running with the ball. As he goes beyond him Richie McCaw of New Zealand tackles Smith and brings him to ground as Carl Hayman joins in the tackle.

McCaw, behind Smith from the Australian perspective, gets to his feet and heads for the ball.

Did McCaw infringe?

No. As the tackler he is not bound to come from behind, from the New Zealand perspective, and through the gate. Entry through the gate is for “other players”, i.e. not the tackled player or the tackler.

Law 15.6 (c) At a tackle or near to a tackle, other players who play the ball must do so from behind the ball and from behind the tackled player or the tackler closest to those players’ goal-line.

But – a hairsplitting but – what about Hayman? He is not a tackler in law terms because he does not go to ground. Did he play from the side? He may well be the one penalised. But that’s tough.

The one who looks more certain of coming in at the side was Stephen Larkham!

Time: 11 minutes

2. Kick off and out

The match starts badly for Australia when Julian Huxley kicks the kick-off directly into touch.

Byron Kelleher and Troy Flavell seek to gain advantage from a quick throw-in from touch but the referee calls them back for a scrum at the middle of the half-way line.

Law 13.8 BALL GOES DIRECTLY INTO TOUCH

The ball must land in the field-of-play. If it is kicked directly into touch the opposing team has three choices:

To have the ball kicked off again, or
To have a scrum at the centre and they have the throw-in, or
To accept the kick.

If they accept the kick, the line-out is on the half-way line. If the ball is blown behind the half-way line and goes directly into touch, the line-out is at the place where it went into touch.

Who is “they”?

The norm in such situations is for the referee to offer options to the receiving team’s captain. He decides. If he says scrum, then a scrum it will be.

What would happen if the play was so speedy that there was no time for the referee to say Option? or Richie McCaw to say Scrum? That could have happened if Kelleher had been in touch when he caught the ball and threw it straight in from there to Troy Flavell.

That presumably would be all right because then “they” (vox populi?) have decided and acted without gaining any sneaky advantage from their actions.

In fact a quick throw-in was not on in this particular instance, as Flavell had got the ball from a ballboy to throw it in.

Time: 1st minute

3. The Shepherdson crawl

The Wallabies are hot on the attack and go left as Matt Giteau, stumbling, passes to Stephen Larkham who skips George Gregan and passes to prop Guy Shepherdson. The big man tucks the ball under his right arm and charges straight ahead where centre Aaron Mauger is waiting for him. Mauger tackles Shepherdson and Carl Hayman jumps on Shepherdson to bring the big man to earth.

Holding the ball Shepherdson lifts it off the ground and goes forward towards the goal-line. He is short and lifts the ball up again. Whether he actually grounded after this it seems unlikely.

If the first forward movement after the tackle could be construed as momentum, though it did not seem so, the second attempt to lift the ball could not be construed as placing the ball.

The penalty seemed entirely justified.

Time: 44 minutes

4. Coloured lines

In Sydney where the grass was green, the lines were golden. In Brakpan, where the frost had bleached the grass almost white, the lines were blue.

Law 1 talks about the ground and its lines and says: All the lines must be suitably marked out according to the Plan.

There is nothing that says the lines must be white or even that they should be drawn. They could, for example be cut into the turf.

There was at one stage a suggestion that, for the sake of television viewers, lines of different colours be used – gold for the goal-lines, red for the five-metre lines and so on.