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Law discussion - Six Nations

Friday 14th March 2008

Lionel Nallet: Needs to learn the art of tapping before he can go

It was another bumper weekend of Six Nations rugby, resulting in Wales staying on course for the Grand Slam. As is always the case though there was plenty of talking points and we are here to clear any confusion up for you.

No try for Nallet

France captain Lionel Nallet believes he scored a legitimate try against Italy, only to be called back for taking a penalty in the incorrect manner. Nallet, in a hurry, picked up the ball and tapped it with his boot whilst it was still in his hands. So instead of scoring a try he succeeds in gifting Italy a five metre scrum.

IRB Definition

Kick - a kick is made by hitting the ball with any part of the leg or foot, except the heel, from the toe to the knee but not including the knee; a kick must move the ball a visible distance out of the hand, or along the ground.

The ball did not leave Nallet's hand when he put his boot to it.

Law 21.3 How the penalty and free-kicks are taken.

(a) Any player may take a penalty or free kick awarded for an infringement with any kind of kick: punt, drop kick or place kick. The ball may be kicked with any part of the leg from knee to toe but not with the heel.

(b) Bouncing the ball on the knee is not taking a kick.

(c) The kicker must use the ball that was in play unless the referee decides it was defective.

Penalty: Any infringement by the kicker's team results in a scrum at the mark. The opposing team throws in the ball.

Line-out or drop-out?

First up is the kick from Ronan O'Gara that hit the corner post in the opening half of the Ireland Wales game. The key to the decision here was the order of events, as two different scenarios could have developed.

Had the ball hit the corner post first, and then the touchline it would have been a 22m drop-out to Wales. However had the ball hit the touchline first and then the corner post it would have been a line-out to Wales five metres out from their line.

In this instance the ball hit the line first, albeit fractionally, and Wales had the line-out.

Kicker's Delight

It was a wet and windy day in Edinburgh on Saturday, hence the high percentage of kicking we saw. It was from two such kicks that two separate incidents happened causing mixed reactions from the crowd.

The first saw Hugo Southwell hoist a high kick to chase himself, but after a few strides of his chase he ran into Jamie Noon and hit the floor. Much to the crowd's displeasure Jonathan Kaplan let play continue.

Now to a similar incident involving Jonny Wilkinson, who like Southwell hangs up a high kick to chase. Wilkinson clips Jason White and flies through the air, only to hear Kaplan call it a dive.

The reason Kaplan took no action against Noon was due to his lack of movement. He was not in Southwell's initial path and therefore had no need to move, so he was perfectly right to hold his ground. Had he stepped into Southwell's path and then made contact it would have been a penalty to Scotland, as it was the game continued.

Throwing to the line-out

We saw, on more than one occasion, hookers standing in different positions to throw the ball into the line-out. One player who stood out more than most was France's Dimitri Szarzewski, who would stand in line with his line of forwards when throwing into the line-out.

So what is the correct way to throw into the line-out?

Law 19.5 How the throw-in is taken

The player taking the throw-in must stand at the correct place. The player must not step into the field of play when the ball is thrown. The ball must be thrown straight, so that it travels at least 5 metres along the touchline before it first touches the ground or is touched by a player.

Law 19.6 Incorrect throw-in

(a) If the throw-in at a line-out is incorrect, the opposing team has the choice of throwing in at a line-out or a scrum on the 15-metre line. If they choose the throw-in to the line-out and it is again incorrect, a scrum is formed. The team that took the first throw-in throws in the ball.

Given the Dummy

This is something that you do not see too often these days but Italian scrum-half Simon Picone was penalised, albeit just a free-kick, against France for dummying at the base of a ruck.

Law 16.4 (f) A player must not take any action to make the opponents think that the ball is out of the ruck while it is still in the ruck.
Penalty: Free Kick

This is what Picone did, on three occasions, at the same ruck, he put his hands by the ball only to stand up without it pointing directions to his forwards. On the third time of doing so he was penalised for dummying, and in this instance the referee was well within his rights to do so.

Don't beat around the bush

As is often the case what the referee says can be a little confusing. Last weekend we saw a dubious try awarded in the Super 14 due to poor wording from the ref. This week the two examples come from the Six Nations, and both from the Scotland-England game.

Scotland were guilty of giving away a series of penalties and soon enough Kaplan lost his patience and called Mike Blair over to warn him.

"You will lose personnel," said Kaplan.

A clearer way of conveying the same message would have been to warn Blair that the next offender would be heading for the sin-bin.

Later in the same game Andrew Sheridan was not listening to Kaplan at the scrum, only this time he didn't beat about the bush but instead laid it out very clearly.

"I'm not asking you. I'm telling you," Kaplan said.

So there we have it, this week's Law Discussion, obviously there will be areas we have missed but feel free to let us know your thoughts.