S14 Week 7 - incidents

Super 14 Week 7 has come and gone, the half-way mark, and we have not yet reached autumn in the Southern Hemisphere. We have some interesting incidents to discuss from the six matches played. After all it’s not every weekend that you get two penalty tries and both for the same sort of infringement.

We have four incidents involving the humble knock-on.

1. Consistency?

Two incidents:

a. The Chiefs have the throw-in at a line-out on their right five metres from the Lions’ line. They throw to Kristian Ormsby at No.2 in the line-out but immediately move the ball to the pod on their left which charges at the line. All by himself Jacques Cronje confronts the pod which collapses over him. They get to within a metre of the line.

The referee allows advantage and when none accrues penalises the Lions and sends Cronje to the sin bin.

Referee: “They had a very good march on there. You brought it down intentionally. I’m not going to have that.”

Cronje says that he was just sacking.

b. From a scrum five metres from the Chiefs’ line, Jaco Pretorius breaks towards the Chiefs’ posts. Roy Kinikinilau tackles him and brings him to ground less than a metre from the line where a tackle/ruck forms. Janno Vermaak, the Lions scrumhalf has hands down to get the ball when Liam Messam of the Chiefs charges into him. The referee penalises the Chiefs for coming in at the side and for being off-side.

He does not talk to anybody. The Lions play on.

Commentator: “You’d think if he was consistent…. He put the Lions player in the bin for a cynical foul close to the line. He didn’t do anything that time.”

The “I’m not going to have that” is not great comment. It’s about the game, its laws and its players, not about the referee and what he will have or not have.

Even allowing that Cronje’s action was illegal, which is debatable, and taking into account that the Chiefs group of players was heading for the goal-line, it would have given a greater semblance of consistency to have spoken to Messam in this case.

The debate about Cronje’s action is quite interesting. What he launched himself at was not a maul. He had no intention of making it a maul. He wanted to tackle the ball-carrier. Is this not the “only one man” situation referred to as sacking?

2. Kicked knock

We have two incidents.

a. The Bulls are attacking but lose the ball. Tall, energetic Michael Paterson bends down to collect the bouncing ball. It hits his hand and bounces forward before it touches the ground he kicks it ahead with his left foot.

The referee calls him back for the scrum.

Commentator: “When you lose the ball forward you’ve got to regather it with your hands, I guess.”

b. Peter Hewat of the Waratahs is chasing a bouncing ball near the touch-line on his right. With his right hand he knocks the ball forward. Before the ball touches the ground, he kicks it with his right foot down towards the Stormers’ line.

The referee calls him back for the scrum, saying: “Once you have lost it you must regather.”

The crowd booed the referee.

In the first case the commentator was right. In the second case the referee was right, the booers wrong.

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.

Paterson and Hewat hit the ball forward with the hand. Each was the “original player”. Neither caught the ball. That means that it was a knock on, and the referee was right.

Paterson’s knock-on was clearly accidental. Hewat’s look deliberate. Can you imagine the furore if the referee had penalised Hewat for a deliberate knock-on!

There is a clip of the Hewat incident on the website www.sareferees.co.za.

3. Knock-on penalty try

It happened twice and if it shows anything it shows consistency from referee to referee for it happened in similar fashion in different matches with the same decision.

a. The Force are on the attack. Not far from the Reds’ line scrumhalf Chris O’Young passes to his right to flyhalf Jimmy Hilgendorf who throws a skip pass past Digby Ioane in the direction of Junior Pelesasa who has an overlap. It is a good pass which will certainly reach Pelesasa but before the ball can reach Pelesasa, Peter Hynes of the Reds, who is a couple of metres inside Pelesasa puts up a left hand and knocks the ball forward.

The referee awards a penalty try and sends Hynes to the sin bin. Hynes protests that he was trying to catch the ball.

Commentator: “I think you will find that Hynes tried to get both hands up to the ball.”

He did not. He had his left arm up, his palm not forming a cushion for the ball but giving the appearance of slapping the at the ball, certainly not an action to catch the ball while his right arm stayed down.

b. The Waratahs are on the attack and heading for the Stormers’ line on the right. Less than five metres from the line Peter Hewat passes to Lote Tuqiri who is unmarked on his outside.

It is a good pass, but Dylan Des Fountain of the Stormers is between Hewat and Tuqiri, closer to Hewat than to Tuqiri. Des Fountain shoots out a left arm and with his hand knocks the ball forward. The palm of his hand is vertical to the ground and he shoots it upwards to make contact with the ball, knocking it a long way forward.

In both cases there certainly was a knock-on. There was no accidental striking of the ball as in both cases the player put his hand out to the ball. Neither looked like an attempt to catch the ball. In fact the chances of catching the ball were nil.

The action of a deliberate knock-on fall under Law 10 – 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 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 referee could conclude from the pass in each of these cases and form the position of the receiver that a try would probably have been scored. In each case the referee acted within the requirements of the Laws of the Game.

Let’s just repeat that second paragraph: 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.

4. Pillars

A pillar is a term in rugby to refer to players who stand on the side of the tackle/ruck to prevent the opposition from getting easily to their receiver.

At a ruck those pillars are required to be behind the last feet on their side. Sometimes they are not, which makes them liable to penalty, and sometimes their presence in an off-side position affects play, which means that they should be penalised. That they are in the position at all suggests that they are there for a purpose.

In the match between the Sharks and the Hurricanes in humid Durban there was an incident which would have been amusing in a creche’s play area.

A Hurricane was tackled and a heap forms. It did not have the ingredients for a ruck but seems to be treated as one. Luke Andrews is unattached on the side of it, crabbing closer and closer to the Sharks’ side.

Bismark du Plessis approaches Andrews and pushes him down onto the heap.

Andrews gets up and flays arms a bit towards Du Plessis who tugs at him and Andrews goes onto the Sharks side. Andrews comes back from well on the Sharks side and behind Du Plessis and pushes him down onto the heap in a bit of petulant tit-for-tat.

Rather than have that it may well be better to have the pillars get back behind the tackle/ruck thing.

6. Out of the tunnel

The Hurricanes put the ball into a scrum. It comes out of the tunnel on their tighthead side – well out. Luke Andrews swings back a long right leg and kicks the ball back into the scrum as AJ Venter of the Sharks bends to pick the ball up. The ball then gets heeled back to the Hurricanes side.

OK?

No.

Law 20.7 (b) If the scrumhalf throws in the ball and it comes out at either end of the tunnel, the ball must be thrown in again unless a free kick or penalty has been awarded.

7. Umaga’s leap

Blair Stewart, the Hurricanes’ flyhalf, kicks high and Tana Umaga, the inside centre, runs after the kick. Under the dropping ball is Frans Steyn of the Sharks who stands firm, side on waiting for the ball to descend. Umaga looks up and leaps for the ball, knees bent, knees leading.

Umaga’s right knee catches Steyn a glancing blow without causing the fullback to stagger, stumble or fall while Umaga falls on the ground.

What Umaga did was reckless and intimidatory. That he did not collide with Steyn and do damage was probably an accident. Certainly it is not a way to jump for the ball in such a contact situation with knees leading.

If a player takes an almighty swing at an opponent and misses, do you penalise him? Do you send him off/

Most of the infringements under foul play are about hurtful contact with an opponent, but there is also the following:

Law 10.4 (k) Acts contrary to good sportsmanship. A player must not do anything that is against the spirit of good sportsmanship in the playing enclosure.
Penalty: Penalty Kick

That is regarded as foul play. It would include Umaga’s action.