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Your laws questions answered....pt two

• Comments (21)

• Nigel Owens - international rugby union referee
• 14 Feb 07, 11:01 AM

Thank you for all your rugby rules questions after another much talked about week in the Six Nations.

This week we cover a wide range of subjects, from the line-out and calling of marks to television match officials and binding at the scrum.

Here are the latest set of queries. Keep your questions coming in.

Harry - Law 19.9 (i) Jumping or supporting before the ball is thrown. A player must not jump for the ball or support any player before the ball has left the hands of the player throwing it in.
In the weekend games this seemed to be happening all the time and was only penalised once. It was blatant so why were the refs, for the most part, not enforcing this law?

It is a difficult one to pick up sometimes. Unless the early jump is blatant, referees just seem to manage it. It is normally the defending team that does this, so if the ball is won by the team throwing the ball in, then referees tend to let it go instead of penalising it.

Kev R - In the Wales v Ireland match, Wales had a penalty which James Hook was to take and kick up-field for a line-out. But he took a step forward holding the ball out and although he looked as if he about to kick it, he did not do so. Ronan O'Gara then sprinted forward and was allowed to tackle even though Hook had not kicked or tapped the ball. The referee said he had presented the ball and therefore it was in play. I thought from a penalty the foot had to be used to bring the ball back in to play?

If I can remember correctly, I think the incident was from a free-kick as you cannot charge a penalty until contact is made with the ball, i.e. kicked or tapped quickly. From a free-kick, once you begin your run up to kick the ball, then the opposition may charge as long as they are back the required 10m.

David - One question I'd like to ask refers to the binding of the number eight. My understanding is that he/she should be bound by one full arm (i.e. shoulder to hand) and then if he/she then binds by elbow to hand with the ball at his/her feet the ball is out of the scrum. Is this correct? The reason I ask is that I was penalised once for having played at the ball from flanker (having been bound legally) in this situation.

You are right. The number eight should have at least one arm fully bound, from the shoulder to the hand otherwise the ball is out and the scrum is over. As there is so much going on in the scrum the referee sometimes is unaware of the binding and tends to call the ball still in the scrum. Personally, I would tell the scrum-half or flanker to check with me first if the ball is out which makes me aware of the situation and also prevents you being wrongly penalised.

Jim - Am I right in saying that the television match official (TMO) may only respond to the direct question of the referee. For example, if the ref asks for the grounding to be checked the TMO may only comment on that even if he has spotted a blatant offside or a foot in touch. Secondly, (and this is a very vague recollection) did I hear that the TMO can only comment on events beyond the try line?

The TMO tends to answer the question asked by the referee. But if for example, the ref asks to check a grounding and the TMO sees a foot in touch by the player in the act of scoring the try, then I would like to think that he would say so. TMO's are allowed to give their verdict on anything that happens on the goal line, in-goal or in the act of scoring a try or touchdown. They can also rule on foul play in in-goal, conversions, penalty kicks at goal and drop goals. However, they can only do this if the referee asks them.

Fiona Gray - In matches where the crowd are making a lot of noise, how do referees hear the call of "mark" when a player is taking a high ball? Do they just guess by looking at the player's body language?

That is a good question. If the noise level is high and you don't hear the mark called then I would look at the touch judge to see if he can hear it or the body language of the player. So yes, sometimes I will give the mark having not clearly heard it called.

Alistair - Why are defenders in a maul instructed to "get back onside" even when they are bound properly to the maul and the only problem is that the maul has rotated around, putting them past some imaginary halfway line?

It sometimes looks like players are in an offside position and if you slowed the play down and looked again, they may have been bound correctly. But it is all about keeping things tidy at the maul and preventing players from giving away marginal decisions. However, if a player finds himself in an offside position in the maul, he must retire behind his offside line or rejoin the maul behind it otherwise he may get penalised.

Peter Lawther - Do you watch videos of games you have officiated in to see what you would have done differently? Have you ever seen anything that afterwards you thought "I really got that one wrong"?

Yes I do Peter, and sometimes I see that I have made a mistake or given a very harsh decision. But what is important to remember is that things things appear a lot different and can happen very quickly in actual game time. So although I will hold my hand up and say: "yes I got that wrong" and will be disappointed with my decision, as long as I know that is was given for the right reason and was what I saw, I will forget about it, learn from it and move on.

JO - Long ago in my playing days I understood that if a referee awarded a penalty at the end of a half he allowed time for the penalty to taken. Also, if the ball was kicked direct to touch from the penalty, the referee also had to allow time for the line-out to take place. Is this still the case?

No. If time was up when the penalty was awarded and it goes to touch, he will blow up for the end of the half or full time because the line-out will be a new phase of play. However, if you opt for a scrum then you are allowed to take it as you are in still the penalty phase.

Grant - Can a player bind on to the opposing scrum-half as he approaches the ruck, i.e. before the ruck ends, assuming the player remains legally bound? I saw two penalties awarded on Sunday for "going for the scrum-half" with a shoulder-patting gesture made by the referee. It not something I have seen before, although I have heard plenty of refs shouting warnings to leave the scrum-half alone.

You are only allowed to bind onto opposition players who are a part of the ruck. If the scrum-half or whoever is in his position is not in the ruck i.e. not bound to it and is waiting to play the ball, then you cannot grab hold of him until he has his hands on the ball.

Mark Riley - If the ball is kicked through and a player falls onto it, does a chasing opponent have to allow him to regain his feet or are they entitled, assuming that they remain on their feet, to compete for the ball on the ground with their hands? If so, does the player on the ground have to release immediately?

The only thing the player on his feet is not allowed to do is fall on the player on the floor. The player who goes to ground must try and get to his feet immediately. If the player who is on his feet wants to play the ball, the one on the ground must release it. The player on his feet cannot prevent the player on the ground getting to his feet though.

Nigel Mykura - A player is standing just outside the field of play. The ball is kicked towards him just over head height. He jumps up and taps the ball back into play. At the instant he hits the ball, both he and the ball are outside the field of play but his feet are well off the ground. What is the decision? This happened to me as a touch judge and I allowed play to continue.

It is all to do with where the ball and the player are when he touched it. In the instance you have described the ball was in touch.

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