elementfreak
Trevor Allan (34)
Sharks v. Hurricanes
After Beauden Barrett kicked a penalty goal for the Canes to make the score 10-3 to the Sharks, he parks himself near touch to receive the restart kick if it heads his way.
Sure enough, he finds the ball coming towards him and he tries to catch it with his foot in touch.
The ball does not pass the plane of touch and……he drops the ball infield, not forward. Then, with his foot still in touch, he picks the ball up.
What should have happened next?
The ball was not in touch when he dropped the ball, not forward, because it is "play-on" (the ball did not pass the plane). If you are standing outside the field of play you can tap the ball backwards, or kick the ball, providing you don't hold it and the ball has not passed the plane. You can even ground the ball without holding it to score a try. Play on.
Since it was "play-on" Barrrett, with his foot still in touch, effectively put the ball into touch when he picked up the ball dropped backwards infield.
Lineout to the Sharks? Should have been, but Andrew Lees awarded a scrum back on the halfway line to the Canes because he thought that the Sharks kicked the restart directly into touch. He probably did so on the advice of the AR Marius Jonker.
But wait a minute—did not Mvovo of the Sharks knock the ball on chasing the restart kick, before Barrett dropped the ball?
He may have, but in that case it should have been a scrum to the Canes where the knock-on occurred.
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That's a tough situation to think through in a split second. Apart from that how did Lees go?