Six Nations - stamping

Three cases of boot on prone players

The Six Nations got under way with an interesting couple of days, reaching a climax with that thriller in Edinburgh. We are going to do three sections to our law discussion this week, starting with the burning question of stamping in the Ireland-Italy match.

What distinguishes games one from another is the laws/rules that govern the game. Players look at the game and then agree to play according to those laws/rules. If you don't want to be manhandled, then you don't play rugby or gridiron. If you like the idea of physical contact, then you opt for rugby or gridiron. But even within these games there are limitations.

There are things which gridiron allows which rugby does not allow – and vice versa.

The laws form a sort of contract with the player. This is the game, these are the laws and so this is how I accept that I shall play.

If I play rugby, those laws will protect me against violence outside of the laws, and these laws have become more and more protective of the players.

Not long ago there was no sanction for tackling high or tackling in the air. Those things are now big issues in the matter of foul play.

In early days the laws allowed hacking, that is kicking an opponent with the toe of your boot, often reinforced with a metal toecap, between the knee and the ankle. There were even laws/rules governing it: The law governing hacking was refined from time to time. The first Test, in 1871, was a no-hacking affair and in 1874, the year of the first rugby fatality, it was banned with the words: "No hacking over or tripping shall be allowed under any circumstances."

Before we get onto the three incidents of stamping in the Ireland-Italy match – two involving Brian O'Driscoll and one involving Denis Leamy – let's look at what the laws say, because that is the contract that Fabio Ongaro, Mirco Bergamasco and Paul Griffen were playing to.

Law 10 deals with foul play.

Law 10.4 (b) Stamping or trampling. A player must not stamp or trample on an opponent.
Penalty: Penalty kick.

Oxford English Dictionary:
stamp: bring down (one's foot) heavily on the ground or an object.
tramp: walk heavily or noisily.

Often the reason given for bringing a foot down on a prone opponent is that it is really rucking.

Let's go to the law on rucking. Law 16.3 deals with RUCKING

Law 16.3 (f) A player rucking for the ball must not ruck players on the ground. A player rucking for the ball tries to step over players on the ground and must not intentionally step on them. A player rucking must do so near the ball.
Penalty: Penalty kick for dangerous play

Let's go to the three incidents.

1. O'Driscoll on Ongaro

This happens in the 38th minute of the match.

Paul O'Connell has the ball and drives forward. He is tackled by Marco Bortolami and brought to ground. While they are lying there the Italian hooker Fabio Ongaro goes in – through the gate – to play the ball, low and, initially, on his feet, but then he goes to ground.

O'Driscoll approaches. The referee calls Advantage. O'Driscoll stamps twice, the second time heavily on Ongaro's side below his armpit. Stamps? He certainly brought his foot down heavily.

Mauro Bergamasco goes in low on O'Driscoll who gets to his feet aggressively in the face of Italian anger. The referee blows his whistle. Santiago Dellapè then pulls O'Driscoll to ground in an undignified way.

The referee calls the captains and says: "I've blown my whistle for a penalty. Stop playing."

Bortolami attempts to say something to the referee. The referee interrupts him and says: "Away."

O'Driscoll waves Bortolami away.

Bortolami goes away and Ireland kick the penalty for touch for the action is within their half.

2. O'Driscoll on Mirco Bergamasco

This happens in the 53rd minute of the match.

Ireland are passing to their left. Gordon D'Arcy gets the ball but Mirco Bergamasco comes in quickly to tackle. Both players go to ground. Others gather. Bergamasco rises and then goes down to the ball, lying on the ball in what now looks like a ruck.

O'Driscoll approaches. The referee calls Advantage. O'Driscoll brings his right foot down on Bergamasco and then, more heavily, his left foot down on Bergamasco. The referee blows his whistle.

The referee calls 'over the top', and penalises Italy. The touch-judge approaches but the referee gestures to him that he has it all in hand.

Ireland kick to touch and on the way the referee says to the Italians: "Leave the ball alone. Stay on your feet."

3. Leamy on Griffen

It happened in the 75th minute of the match.

Ludovico Nitoglia of Italy runs with the ball but is caught and held by Shane Horgan and David Wallace. Players come round and eventually the Italians, with greater numbers, drive the maul back and it goes to ground with a mixture of players on the ground. One of them is Griffen, lying parallel to the touch-line and clearly trapped, his head sticking out on the Irish side. Denis Leamy of Ireland is on his feet. He stamps downwards twice. Griffen holds onto his head for protection. The whistle goes and the referee awards a scrum to Ireland, but the Italians are incensed and try to get at Leamy.

The referee eventually penalises Martín Castrogiovanni for punching.

In none of the cases does the referee speak to the stamper – not O'Driscoll in case 1, not O'Driscoll in case 2 and not Leamy in Case 3. The referee did not seem to need advice from his (more experienced) touch-judges either, just as he did not need advice from then television match official.

That may mean that the referee felt that there was nothing wrong with their actions.

O'Driscoll justified his actions, saying: "Situations arose during the course of the match when they were trying to slow our ball down, and rucking the ball is part of the game.

"If your find yourself on the wrong side of the ruck, and you're trying to slow the ball down, you have to expect to be rucked off it.

"And, as far as I'm concerned, that's exactly what I was doing."

According to the law that is not what he was doing. He was stamping on a player on the ground. He did not try to step over the player. He stepped on him. He intentionally stepped on him. He was going for the player not the ball – at least that is certainly the impression. That was not rucking. His leg rose in front of his hips and came straight down. That is not an action calculated to get the ball back.

Slowing the ball down can be done legally. Not that the Italians, apparently, were being naughty at the tackle/ruck. In that first half they were penalised only twice while the Irish were penalised four times at the tackle/ruck. It does not seem that it was "frustration" was what goaded the Irish into stamping.

The excuse for hacking was that it got the ball out of the massed scrummage. Those against the abolition of hacking believed that the great game was becoming soft, emasculated.

Imagine now if players with metal toecaps kicked each other's shins. Imagine this sort of report being lauded: "The champion hack of one side coming through the scrummage finished off his triumphal march by place kicking a half-back right off his feet." That would not be condoned now, nor would a high tackle or an air tackle – or a spear tackle.

There is nothing in the Laws of the Game which allows for exemptions for individual players. You may be your country's captain and a star player, but you are still obliged to conform to the laws. You may be rugby's most celebrated victim, but you are not allowed to victimise.

Just as Castrogiovanni was not allowed to take the law into his own hands, so O'Driscoll and Leamy were not allowed to take the law into their own hands.

If opponents are doing something wrong, it is a matter for the referee. It does not give the wronged side the right to take measures outside of the law, such as punching or stamping or hitting with a meat axe.

For the referee he needs to see to the safety of the players within the law. Surely if a player stamps on an opponent lying on the ground – not the bravest of confrontations, certainly not as brave as ancient hacking – he can potentially do more damage than a punch or an abhorrent bite. Surely he should at least be spoken to – admonished is the pompous word the laws use.

If Bortolami is admonished for a late tackle and Ramiro Pez sin-binned for one, then a talking to for stamping does not seem out of place.

Will there be a citing? The Italians would like there to be a citing or two. But what about the idea that citing is done only for red-card offences? None of these seemed red-cardable but a yellow card would not have been excessive.

There have been players this year who have been suspended for stamping, which suggests that a citing would not be excessive.

The IRB has a tariff of recommended suspensions for foul play. For hacking, stamping or trampling an opponent it recommends, as a norm, a suspension of 42 days if the action is to the body, 84 days if it is to the head.

There were no stamping incidents in the other two Six Nations matches of the weekend.