Offside at quick throw-in

aber-fan wrote:

scarletman wrote:

aber-fan wrote:

scarletman wrote:

Abbey wrote:

At the Australia v Scotland game, the Aussie full back caught a long Scottish kick just in front of his try line and kicked it straight back over the touch line at the opposing 10 metre line. The Scots took a quick throw in but one of the Aussie forwards carried on running towards the ball carrier and tackled him (he was on the halfway line when the kick was taken on his own try-line)

Now, listening to Nigel Owens on the ref-link at Parc y Scarlets, he often tells attackers who are offside that they cannot continue to advance just because the ball is dead.

Surely the offside line isn't re-set during a quick throw-in?

Massive grey area this one ....

Yes he was offside in front of the kicker but, the ball went dead, and the Scots decided to take the throw in option. As a line of touch has been drawn(by the Scot's option to take a quick throw in) , the Aussie is allowed to be in position to contest the lineout as if there was a set restart (i.e. keeping the gap, and not encroaching the 5m line) as there is only a receiver, and the ball has to travel at least 5m to be a valid throw in, as soon as the receiver receives the ball he is fair game.

However, a lot of Referees (myself included) follow the "first offence" option which in this case I would have awarded a penalty to Scotland for the Aussie not retreating !

What did you make of an incident in the recent Connacht game, when one of their players during a period of aerial ping-pong banged the ball into touch 50 yards downfield. The ball was caught by a Scarlet (DTH, maybe?) who clearly thought about taking a quick throw in, but he couldn't because a Connacht player - fully 50 yards in front of the kicker - was standing in front of him.

Would you have penalised the Connacht player for not retreating, even though the throw in was not taken? I'm pretty certain it would have been but for his presence?

(it seemed to me that Connacht regularly left a player high up the field for this purpose, though the example I mention was the most blatant.)

Hi Aber,

Technically as the ball has gone into touch, it is not live until it has been played, so would I have penalised him, no, Had we taken the quick throw in the I and every referee on the planet would have penalised him in a heartbeat!

Thanks, Scarletman.

This sort of thing happens far too often, IMO - the Scarlets coaches should tell the players to take the throw in in order to win the penalty - this would allow the Scarlets to gain touch in opposition territory AND throw in.

Providing the officials see it ! Wink