NPC, Currie Cup, Heineken action

A dozen things

There was lots of action over the weekend with the finals of the NPC and the Currie Cup and the start to the Heineken Cup.

What was obvious is that there is no sensible possibility of comparing the rugby played in the two hemispheres simply because the weather was so different. The Heineken opened in unpleasant weather while the southern finals were played in fine conditions.

We are going to discuss some aspects of law from some of the matches - just as discussion points, just to sharpen up our knowledge of the law and its application.

Discipline may be worth mentioning. There were two red cards and 15 yellow cards on the Heineken Cup weekend of bad weather and bad behaviour. That is a whack. In addition there were four players cited, three of them Edinburgh players cited by Perpignan. The fourth was a Northampton player cited by Glasgow.

Last year Perpignan had the indignity of having five players cited by Wasps and their president Marcel Dagrenat is reported as being angry and saying that he would look to make as many citings as he felt were possible in games involving his side in this seasons tournament in response.

That is not healthy. Would it not be better for a citing commissioner to be responsible for each match and do the citing himself, rather than leave it to the clubs with the possibility of silly tit-for-tat?

1. Hitting the padding

Canterbury attack. Daniel Carter was a strong break down the left. The ball comes back right to Nathan Mauger who breaks but is tackled. Hooker Corey Flynn picks up and heads for the posts as Wellington's tall centre Conrad Smith tackles him. Flynn ploughs into the padding ball first and face first, the ball nearly a metre up the padding. He rolls to his right on his back and loses the ball.

The referee and the television match official chat and decide that Flynn lost the ball forward. A scrum is ordered.

Right?

Yes.

For the try to be scored the ball would need to be in contact with the padding and the ground at the same time.

2. Over the line but not over the line

There are two incidents to consider - for fun.

a. Daniel Carter of Canterbury kicks a penalty goal and Piri Weepu kicks off  for Wellington, kicking to his left. He kicks it far and the ball is dropping when Scott Hamilton of Canterbury catches the ball. He catches the ball before it reaches the touch-line, his right foot over the touch-line.

b. Dave Walder, the Newcastle flyhalf, kicks the ball downfield towards the Dragons' posts. The Dragons' fullback Kevin Morgan waits for it. The ball breaks off and hits the padding. It stops in the field of play, not a metre from the goal-line but infield. Morgan stands behind his goal-line, reaches out, picks up the ball and withdraws it over the line, dotting it down.

22 or five-metre scrum?

In a. above the ball is out because Hamilton is out. The ball is in the air and moving.

In b. the ball is carried over because it is static.

If in Hamilton's case the ball had been lying still in the field of play and Hamilton, one foot in touch, had picked it up the ball would have become out and Wellington would have had the throw-in.

In b. the applicable law is the definition of Law 22: A defending player who has one foot on the goal-line or in the in-goal who receives the ball is considered to have both feet in in-goal.

Morgan does not receive the ball. He fetches it.

Then Law 22.7 (d) If a defending player threw or took the ball into the in-goal, and a defending player grounded it, and there has been no infringement, play is restarted by a 5-metre scrum. The position of the scrum is in line with where the ball has been touched down. The attacking side throws in the ball.

3. Tough call on McCaw?

Powerful Ma'a Nonu dashes ahead on attack. Richie McCaw of the Canterbury tackles him around the ankles from behind.

This is all slow motion but ids the order of events:

Nonu and McCaw go to ground, McCaw holding Nonu.
McCaw gets to his feet and moves to the ball, bending down to pick it up.
Rodney So'oialo of Wellington's and Reuben Thorne drive onto the place and make contact with each other.
McCaw picks up the ball.

That's more or less the sequence of events though McCaw's pick-up is pretty well simultaneous with So'oialo and Thorne's contact.

McCaw is penalised for being off-side - "Ruck had formed."

The decision was probably right. It's just so hard on the player. If either Thorne or So'oialo had been absent there was no ruck, just a tackle. And then McCaw was okay to pick the ball up.

All this is happening at speed. It just seems farfetched to expect McCaw to stop, see if So'oialo and Thorne are on their feet and in contact and over the ball which is on the ground, before he acts.

It is perhaps another reason to make an off-side line at the tackle or to insist that after a tackle all players who play the ball must do so from behind the ball ("through the gate") - and that includes the tackler.

4. Knock-on off-side

Let's look at two incidents:

a. Jimmy Gopperth throws an ugly pass that goes behind some of his players and to ground. Lome Fa'atau of Wellington falls back and attempts to pick up the awkward ball. He knocks on. Shannon Paku of Wellington, who is in front of Fa'atau, bends down to pick up the ball as Caleb Ralph and Campbell Johnstone pounce.

The referee penalises Paku.

Right?

Yes.

b. Arwel Thomas of the Scarlets grubbers behind the Toulouse backs. Frédéric Michalak of Toulouse goes back to pick up the ball but knocks on. Christian Labit, the Toulouse flank, is in front of Michalak and picks up the ball.

The referee awards a scrum to the Scarlets.

Right?

Yes.

The penalty for off-side after a knock-on becomes operative if there are opponents to play the ball and get advantage from it - as was the case in a.

In b. there was no Scarlet to take advantage. Michalak could easily have reached out and got it himself.

5. Deliberately kicked out

Wellington score and Canterbury are to kick off. As Andrew Mehrtens comes to the half-way line, the siren goes to tell the world that time is up. He kicks - a miserable kick that goes straight into touch not even ten metres ahead.

The final whistle goes.

Right?

Yes.

Rugby law says you are not allowed to infringe intentionally/deliberately.

Kicking the ball into touch is not an infringement. Time was up, which means there was no time for a scrum. The match was over.

6. He lost the ball

There was lots of activity for the television match official in the Currie Cup Final, and he and the referee handled it admirably - with the right words and with calm - while the programme director suffered much nervous activity.

Here are just two incidents:

a. Rassie Erasmus of the Cheetahs was at the goal-line. Johan Roets of the Blue Bulls drove upwards into his waist and Jacques Cronjé dashed in to help as the Cheetah captain reached down. As Roets drove him up Erasmus reached down with a long right hand. Cronjé jolted Erasmus's forearm. Erasmus dropped the ball.

The referee consulted the television match official and awarded a try.

b. The Blue Bulls attacked and just when it seemed that Keegan Fredericks was clear to score a flying Chris Kruger flew into him. Fredericks dropped the ball.

The referee consulted the television match official and awarded a five-metre scrum to the Cheetahs.

Funny?

No. Both decisions were right.

Merely dropping the ball in in-goal does not rule out the possibility of a try. Dropping it forward as Keegan Fredericks did does rule out a try and the scrum was then the correct decision.

In the Erasmus case, the ruling was that the ball had not gone forward. Then a try was still on.

What happened next?

When Erasmus dropped the ball it actually went backwards into the field-of-play. Roets's foot hit it back into in-goal where the eager Anton Pitout of the Cheetahs fell on the ball. It was a try!

7. Not held

Just before half-time Tsepo Kokoale of the Cheetahs comes sweeping around to take a pass from Rassie Erasmus. Kokoale heads for the line. Frikkie Welsh of the Blue Bulls makes contact with him. Kokoale stumbles. Gavin Passens of the Blue Bulls makes for Kokoale as he falls. Kokoale is on the ground. Passens's torso is on Kokoale's legs. Kokoali lifts himself up and places the ball over the goal-line.

The referee and the television match official chat again, and they decide to award a try.

Right?

Yes.

Kokoale was entitled to place the ball. He was entitled to get up with the ball, because he was not held. He was not allowed to crawl with the ball. He did not crawl.

8. Where's the penalty, sir?

The Cheetahs attack. Tsepo Kokoale of the Cheetahs is tackled. Derick Hougaard of the Blue Bulls comes in the side of the tackle/ruck thing about ten metres in from touch. The referee flings out an advantageous arm. The Cheetahs pass the ball infield, including a long pass which Bakkies Botha intercepts near the middle of the half-way line. But Botha is off-side.

Where do you give the penalty? Ten metres in from touch or 35 metres in from touch?

The referee was playing advantage. The advantage was certainly the kick in midfield.

That is what he did.

9. Off-side, sir!

The Cheetahs get the ball from a ruck, and Noel Oelschig passes to Willem de Waal who passes to Jacques Claassens. The centre bursts for the posts. Frikkie Welsh of the Blue Bulls knocks him down. Claassens falls some five metres beyond Welsh who is on the ground. Welsh leaps up and grabs the ball.

Rassie Erasmus lifts an arm in appeal to the referee. The referee lifts both arms to signal play on.

Who was right - Rassie or the ref?

The referee. There was no reason on earth why Welsh was not allowed to play the ball.

10. Crossing

Two incidents:

a. The Blue Bulls are hot on the attack. The ball comes back to Anton Leonard. He is moving right when Keegan Fredericks of the Blue Bulls crosses in front of him. This is all happening in that narrow five-metre strip from the goal-line with defenders in place.

The referee awarded a scrum to the Cheetahs.

b. Tana Umaga of Wellington is tackled and gets the ball back. Piri Weepu of Wellington passes to Kristian Ormsby. Close to him is Wellington prop Joe McDonnell who gets in front of Ormsby and stops a defender from getting to him.

The referee penalises McDonnell.

There is some debate possible here.

If I run into my own man in front of me and there is no opponent nearby, play goes on.
If I run into my own man in front of me and he gets in the way of an opponent, it's a scrum to my opponents.
If my own man is in front of me and gets in the way of an opponent without contact between the two of us, it's a penalty.

The act of avoiding my own man could be the better and more virtuous thing to do, but it could incur a penalty which the clumsier act would not have done.

Obstruction of this kind is so seldom an intentional act of villainy. Would the scrum in both cases not be the better option? That said, the letter of the law says the penalty is the right thing to do.

11. Charge-down off-side

Jean-Christophe Elissalde of Toulouse has the ball under pressure. He kicks as Tal Selley approaches of the Scarlets. The ball ricochets of Selley and flies downfield where Chris Wyatt of the Scarlets is lurking. Wyatt catches the ball, and the referee penalises him for being off-side.

The one commentator remarks that it is a charge-down. The other says that it came off Selley's ankle and so was not a charge down and so Wyatt was off-side.

The truth is that Wyatt was off-side under the simplest of off-side laws - being in front of a team-mate who last played the ball. Charge-down and ankle are irrelevant.

12. Dawson's dodge

Matt Dawson, scrumhalf of Wasps, put lots of pressure on scrumhalf Dimitri Yachvili and No.8 Imanol Harinordoquy of Biarritz. It was effective. To ensure that Yachvili did not get his own back Dawson worked a dodge with Lawrence Dallaglio.

When Wasps hooked the ball, it would come back to Dallaglio. Dawson did not go back to collect it, but stayed on the side of the scrum his back to Yachvili, thereby making it hard for Yachvili to get to Dallaglio.

Law 20.12 (b) Off-side for scrumhalves. When a team has won the ball in a scrum, the scrumhalf of that team is off-side if both feet are in front of the ball while it is still in the scrum. If the scrumhalf has only one foot in front of the ball, the scrumhalf is not off-side.
Penalty: Penalty Kick

So Dawson must be behind the ball.