Time to take a well-earned breather. Time also for lingering over a long lunch with an old friend – nothing could be better. He’s not a former referee but a former player who always brings extremely interesting opinions to the table. We discussed many aspects of the rugby we’ve seen so far in this season’s Six Nations. Needless to say, as you can imagine, we solved all of the game’s ailments during the course of the afternoon.
For starters he brought up the advantage law, and in particular his focus was the tackle on Hugo Keenan in Ireland’s match against Scotland close to the Scottish goal line. This incident was also the subject of several queries which landed in my in-box.
Jamison Gibson-Park bamboozled the defence with the cleverest of deft little kicks over their heads. Keenan was on to it like a hare, and as he jumped to catch the ball the Scottish posts beckoned. But the hare was snared, both quickly and illegally. He was clearly tackled while still airborne. Ireland recycled the ball, and a couple of passes later Jack Conan crashed over for a try, the conversion went astray.
There did not appear to be any other covering defenders to rule out a potential penalty try for the tackle – we based our discussion on the premise that there were not. Neither did we worry about whether or not this was an error by the officials as it’s highly probable that all referees would have done exactly as James Doleman did. Although that doesn’t mean it’s correct – here’s what we considered.
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The referee played advantage, and then awarded Conan’s try, but would a penalty try have been the right decision? Or would that have been simply a prime example of “reductio ad absurdum”, much favoured in debate by ancient Greek philosophers. Let’s see.
If foul play prevents a probable try we all know that a penalty try will be awarded. However, the wise law definition has an extra dimension which is critical to our deliberations. It tells us that a penalty try should also be awarded if foul play prevents a try from being scored in “a more advantageous position”. If he had applied that element Doleman would have handed Ireland an automatic seven points, and Scotland would have been given a yellow card.
There are two very distinct sides to this particular coin, and my good friend and I could not agree. On balance I chose the absurd route, arguing that Conan’s try was a different phase of play and that the law was correctly applied. That was countered by immovable insistence that it was undoubtedly a penalty try, that the illegal tackle had clearly disadvantaged Ireland. We both also wondered what would have happened if the Ireland captain had queried it.
So, over to World Rugby, please tell us what exactly should be what? Now that we’ve seen it, we’ll see it again. Everybody needs to know.
Nowadays the refereeing of penalty advantage bears no resemblance to what is written in the laws. Advantage is now never “over” unless, of course, a try is scored. And that is far, far removed from what is written in the book. Referees go back multiple phases, multiple metres too, even if the team in possession butcher a clear opportunity to score.
There are plenty of examples, with the most notorious occurring a few years ago, also against Scotland. Stuart Hogg, unopposed, took a pass on Ireland’s goal line. Instead of touching the ball down he contrived to drop it. For that bungled effort the referee went back and awarded Scotland a penalty. Utter nonsense.
Worryingly we are now seeing the law also being stretched beyond its limits when referees play advantage to minor offences such as knock-ons. Over the two rounds so far we both noticed about half a dozen times or so that the referee went back for a scrum when the team, now in possession, under no pressure whatsoever, either dropped the ball or skewed a kick. Nika Amashukeli, who was very good otherwise, disappointingly did exactly that twice. Under these circumstances call “advantage over”, there is no reason to halt play.
Next we looked at advantage when scrums collapse and there is absolutely no consistency. Some refs allow the ball to be played away without calling “advantage”, while others immediately stick out their arm and make the call. Even in the same match a referee might do both at different moments. While these might seem small decisions actually they can be huge, as pointed out by my learned friend. He’s right, of course.
We then moved on to when advantage is “killed” – again zero consistency. It can happen, for example, when a player fumbles a pass and the ball goes forward. The same player then drops on to the ball and lying there denies the opposition any chance of getting hold of it. That action has murdered a potential advantage. It’s highly frustrating when a referee awards a scrum for the first offence rather than a penalty for the second.
We wrapped up our chat by recalling days of yore when referees made a judgment as to when a penalty advantage was over. A decisive line break, followed by a clear run into enemy territory would do the trick. It reduced sanctions, enabled more continuity of play, and, wait for it, was actually in accordance with the law which to this day remains unchanged. Will we ever see the correct modus operandi again? Sadly, we agreed, not a snowball’s chance in hell.
