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Australian Adam Ashleigh Cooper (centre) is tackled by New Zealand's Jimmy Cowan (right) and Ali Williams (left) during the Tri Nations final between the Australian Wallabies and New Zealand All Blacks at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane, Saturday, Sept. 13, 2008. The All Blacks beat the Wallabies 28-24. AAP Image/Dave Hunt
The rugby in this site is crawling with current referees, ex-referees, friends of referees, and their ilk. So why would I, just your normal rugby enthusiast, attempt to go where angels fear to tread?
Especially since infringements in the ruck as evidenced at the Tokyo Blesdisloe is all the talk?
Blame it on the Northern Hemisphere (in jest)!
While watching the Leinster v London Irish match in October, I noticed that while the Leinster half-back was trying to clear the ball at the back of the ruck, one Leinster player got up and placed his arm on an adjoining player.
Later, in a Leicester v Ospreys match, the Ospreys (I think it was the Ospreys) had a novel (to me) method at the ruck: as the opposition almost makes contact, the Osprey ball-carrier would go to ground, turn, and present the ball. Meantime, two Osprey players would run and stand on either side of the player on the ground.
Leicester would not contest the ball. Sometimes this would go through several phases.
How strange, I thought!
Never seen this before in the Southern Hemisphere, where the norm would be all players on the deck bar the half-back. So off I went to Kinokuniya at KLCC (Kuala Lumpur City Centre) and found The RFU Rugby Union Referees Manual, by Richard Greenstead, second edition 2004. (I looked up the IRB website to check that the laws hadn’t since changed.)
There it was on page 40: “2.1 Ruck…Law 16 defines a ruck as follows: A ruck is a phase of play where the ball is on the ground and one or more players from each team who are on their feet, in physical contact, close around the ball on the ground.”
But it was the instructions covering Law 15 that intrigued me.
“Essentially, therefore, Law 15 deals with the situation where the ball carrier or the ball goes to ground, and the major underlying principle of the Law is that players can only participate if they are on their feet … If they (the arriving players) are rushing in with bent backs and heads down they are likely to fall over, and can be penalised as they are making no effort to stay on their feet … They must remain on their feet and not dive on the grounded player. It is imperative that arriving players must not voluntarily fall on or over players lying on the ground with the ball between them or near them – a shout of “Stay up!” is a good reminder for these players.”
Then how do the All Blacks get away with it?
In the Tokyo Bledisloe, from the second minute, ruck after ruck, the All Blacks were lying in the ruck, slowing the ball. At the 27th minute, Gordon Bray said that there must have been 8 (?) instances of ruck infringement, and surely a yellow card was called for.
Despite the general outcry, this happens time and time again, and is fodder for much discussion here in The Roar.
It is such a mystery!
Join The Roar rugby editor Christy Doran, former Wallaby Matt Toomua and a cast of regular and special guests as they look at the biggest issues in the game on The Roar Rugby Podcast. If you’re looking for great odds on the next game check out Aussie bookmaker PlayUp. Chances are you’re about to lose. Set a deposit limit.