Law discussion: Dropping the ball
Here are two incidents from the opening matches of the 2015 Rugby World Cup.
1. With England leading 15-0, Fiji win a scrum near the half-way line. Scrumhalf Nikola Matawalu races down the blindside of the scrum towards the England line. As he is tackled by Jonny May and Mike Brown he manages to slam the ball to ground in in-goal for the try. The referee awards the try. Then, after and possibly as a result of a conversation with the England captain Chris Robshaw the referee refers the incident to the TMO, and the incident appears on the big screens at Twickenham. The home crowd cheer loudly when they see that Matawalu dropped the ball.
No try is awarded and there is a scrum to England, five metres from their line for a knock-on.
2. Wales form a maul from a line-out. Mario Sagario of Uruguay is penalised for copllapsing the maul as it forges forward. Wales kick out for a five-metre line-out and again form a maul. They nudge it ahead but then flank Justin Tipuric breaks away and dives for the line as Santiago Gibernau (14) tries to stop him. The referee refers the matter to the TMO and the replay shows clearly that the ball was no longer in Tipuric's grasp as he surged over the line.
No try is awarded and there is a scrum to Uruguay, five metres from their line for a knock-on.
OK in both cases?
Let's make just one point: there is NOTHING in the laws that speaks of control when it talks about the knock-on. NOTHING. Unfortunately the referee in the second case speaks of control. It is not a useful thing to do as it has led to lots of muddled thinking.
Secondly, in both cases the scrum was awarded for a knock-on. Let's just look at the definition.
Law 12 DEFINITION: KNOCK-ON
A knock-on occurs when a player loses possession of the ball and it goes forward, or when a player hits the ball forward with the hand or arm, or when the ball hits the hand or arm and goes forward, and the ball touches the ground or another player before the original player can catch it.
‘Forward’ means towards the opposing team’s dead ball-line.
Forward – that is the important word here.
In 1. above, Matawalu appears to drop the ball straight down from his right hand.
In 2. above, the ball definitely goes back from Tipuric's grasp towards his waist. In fact in this one, none of the aspects of the knock-on definition seem to apply. In fact it seems that it is Gibernau's right hand that knocks the ball from Tipuric's grasp. If any scrum should have been awarded it would seem that it should have been to Wales.
Forward means from the hand or hands. It does not mean from the ground. As Tappe Henning says: "The ground does not knock on."
If we believe that in neither case the ball is knocked on, a try remains possible even if possession has been lost. But when possession is lost, the player is no longer holding the ball. But the second part of the law on GROUNDING THE BALL would apply.
Law 22.1 GROUNDING The BALL
(b) Player presses down on the ball. A player grounds the ball when it is on the ground in the in-goal and the player presses down on it with a hand or hands, arm or arms, or the front of the player’s body from waist to neck inclusive.
In 1. above, it would seem that Matawalu has his hand on top of the ball when the ball is in contact with the ground. (It would be freaky if his hand did not then exert some downward pressure on the ball!)
In 2. above, it would seem entirely possible that Tipuric's torso would have exerted some sort of downward pressure when he was lying on top of the ball.
It seems that in both cases a try could have been awarded.
Imagine the partisan booing if the referee had awarded a try, because people are conditioned into believing that there cannot be a try if the player drops the ball in in-goal with out taking into account how he drops it and what happens next.
Refereeing was never a popularity contest nor were decisions ever made by consensus.
