Rugby - not set pieces

[Lance Free]

Re: Joubert “Hands on is ball out” is an incorrect call by Joubert, at least in this part of the world. The ARU Game Management Guideline 2011 says:

Quote: The ball is only out of a ruck or scrum when it is totally exposed or it is clear of bodies -

1. If the ball is being dug out (after being won) or is under the feet of players at the back of the ruck, the scrum-half cannot be touched until the ball is clearly out of the ruck. The benefit of any doubt must go to the scrum-half.

2. Zero tolerance on defending players at the ruck who target the scrum-half before he has the ball, even if the ball is out of the ruck. Any onside player must play the ball and not the man. The ball is out only when it leaves the hind foot of the ruck. The scrummie is allowed to have his hands on it.

Re: Munro The Horwill yellow card. He must have regarded Kev as either being off his feet or offside at the ruck or some version of either. Even though the H/B had the ball in hand, I'd regard knocking the ball down in that situation as a professional foul too.

 

[Zeno]

Lee & Lance: Sully covered the Horwill yellow card in his match report.

A few minutes after Slipper’s return, Munro pulled play up at a ruck and called Reds captain James Horwill out. The conversations went something like this.

Horwill: “I didn’t hit the ball, I grabbed his arm”

Munro: “No, you hit the ball. You’re out of the game because you’re in the tackle, you’re off your feet. That’s a cynical foul. They had the ball. You’re gone for 10.”

Horwill: “Really?”

Horwill had reason to be incredulous and did well to keep his comments to this. Leroy Houston and Adam Wallace-Harrison had tackled JC Janse van Rensburg and Horwill was the third man in, trying to counter-ruck over the ball. Lions halfback Jano Vermaak picked up the ball; Horwill leant through and knocked his arm, causing him to drop it. Horwill was never part of the tackle and lost his footing only after the contact with Vermaak.

 

[Lance Free]

Thanks Zeno. Ball or arm, I thought it was the right call by the ref. and have yellow-carded players myself for the same offence.

 

[Gooch]

Alot of the refs up here still use the "If a bird can shit on it, it's out" idea, hands on or not.

 

[Gooch]

Don't know where to put this. Could be good for any of you that have 3D TV's:

Rugby fans will be able to watch the semi-finals, final and third-place play-off of the Rugby World Cup 2011 in 3-D on Sky Television and in 3-D cinemas and other venues in New Zealand and overseas, the International Rugby Board has confirmed.

The filming will be done by Auckland company 3DLive, which will provide the footage to broadcasters and venues around the world.

Rugby World Cup chairman Bernard Lapasset said it was a significant development for the event.

"In a sport where tradition and innovation go hand in hand we will give rugby fans a new viewing dimension."

3DLive director Ronel Schodt said 3-D would give a stunning perspective. "You really do feel as if you are in the front row of the stadium."

http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/rugby/rugby-world-cup/4885127/Rugby-World-Cup-to-be-filmed-in-3-D

 

[Lindommer]

Turner who went to Newington but plays now for Eastwood instead of the local West Harbour club?

Comes from up the bible belt way, played for Epping Rams as a junior. Always going to sign for Eastwood.

 

[matty_k]

Anyone read this article on SMH the other day.
Kiwis told to be hospitable

WORLD CUP organisers are advising New Zealanders not to become too obsessed with the All Blacks in the coming tournament, to forget the one-eyed attitude and instead concentrate on being hospitable hosts.

Is it likely to happen? I think yes but only until the ABs lose in the final stages.

 

[Lee Grant]

Munro: “No, you hit the ball. You’re out of the game because you’re in the tackle, you’re off your feet. That’s a cynical foul.

That's the key. Munro said he was off his feet and he was right. Horwill was leaning over and had some weight on another player.

Otherwise his act of knocking the ball out of a players hands - not forward - should have been allowed.

Or, if he was standing with no weight on the other player would Munro have still pinged him, because of the fact that he was in a tackle (or ruck), though it was over when the act was done?

Or is the act of knocking the ball out of a players hands, not forward, deemed to be a professional foul in all cases? News to me and something which I can't see in the laws or guidlelines.

It's one of those things that is up to the refs I suppose. There is provision in the Foul Play laws to sanction players for "playing unfairly" which covers things not specifically mentioned. Yet one sees it a few times in a season not sanctioned, especially when tackling from behind and noticeably, the ball is attacked and poked out.

I'm guessing that referees invoke this "playing unfairly" more strictly when a scrummie is clearing the ball though technically open play has commenced.

Fair enough.

 

[Lee Grant]

Don't know where to put this.

This is the place for things of interest that probably don't warrant a whole thread by itself.

They don't have to be long winded essays that one suspect is guilty of.

 

[Lance Free]

I went to a Ref's Education Day (and don't say that's an oxymoron) recently and it was one of the (many) zero tolerance points they mentioned. If you grab the opposition halfback or the ball etc from a ruck you're going to get a serious pinging....

 

[DPK]

They don't have to be long winded essays that one suspect is guilty of.

It's alright, RedsHappy hasn't been heard from in a while.

 

[Lee Grant]

RedsHappy is brevity itself compared to my suspect - me.

 

[Lee Grant]

Heineken Cup Quarter-Final - Biarritz v Toulouse

This game last Sunday was exciting and full of interest.

• It was 17-0 at half time to Toulouse, and 17-12 at the 78th minute when David Skrela was charged down for Biarritz winger Ilikena Bolakoro to score in the corner. 17-17; the conversion missed so the game went to extra time.

• Soon after Skrela lines the pill up for a Toulouse penalty and there's a shot of the iconic Toulouse coach, Guy Noves. Commentator Mark Robson says. “He's usually so cool in these situations but he'll be sending out for a packet of Gauloises in a minute.” The nervous Noves turned his back to what was happening and the crowd groan told him the kick had gone over.

• Dimitri Yachvilli who had missed the winning conversion in normal time slots a Biarritz penalty in the second session of extra time. There's not long to go and it's 20 -20 and, look: Toulouse just amble back to take the kick-off.

Why? Are they just slowing down the game and hoping to win the place-kicking competition after scores are tied at the end of the second session of extra time? No: the scores many be level but they are ahead of the game. They will win if the score holds because they have scored 3 tries to 2. There will be no goal kicking shoot-out.

• But irony of ironies: Yachvilli, who had charged down Skrela for the Biarritz try in the 78th minute, was himself charged down near his goal line. One of the forgotten men of French rugby, Yannick Nyanga, scored the winning try for Toulouse.

• Place-kicking contest. Had there been such then only those players who were on the ground at the end of extra time could have participated in the shoot-out. Players on the bench or in the bin could not have taken a kick.

• Incidentally, it was a home game for Biarritz yet they elected to play the game over the Spanish border in San Sebastian. Both cities are in the Basque region; so Biarritz got home support and a bigger gate than at their home ground.

 

[Zeno]

Media moments

A new Daikin ad made for NZ television features Dan Carter as a wall-mounted appliance:

[video]http://vimeo.com/theworkssydney/daikin[/video]

The takeaway message seems to be that if you hang a Daikin on the wall, your girl will be thinking of Carter as you lead her to the bedroom. The ad was made by Oz agency The Works Sydney. An Australian version is planned; what odds the star won't be a rugby player?

This came just a little late to be an April Fools joke: The Daily Mail Online's photos and story about Mickey Rourke training in Central Park for the role of a gay rugby player in a movie based on Gareth Thomas's story. The reports says the actor will be having his front teeth removed as part of his preparation for the part. Whether that's for verisimilitude in respect of the rugby action or the character's sex life, we'll have to wait and see.

An interesting point came up in the Berrick Barnes concussion discussion here on the forum: does wearing headgear give a player a false sense of safety? This issue has been a hot topic in surfing, rockclimbing, snowsports, boxing and martial arts, skating and of course cycling circles for many years. An article in Canada's The Globe and Mail this week looked at what one anti-helmet bike campaigner calls "risk homeostasis theory", and considers rugby injuries along the way.

There was a bizarre comment from the great John Eales in his latest SMH column:

The match-up between the Crusaders and Stormers in Cape Town in round 12 will be intriguing and even more so as it will be a dress rehearsal for the World Cup later in the year.

A dress rehearsal? At a stretch you might call it an off-Broadway partial-cast preview in mufti.

Back overseas, Buzz McClain at Universalsports.com provides a couple of interesting snippets as he looks ahead to the RWC match-up between USA and Russia: Todd Clever's iPod psych-up song is "Party in the U.S.A." by Miley Cyrus, and the Russian squad is being bankrolled by oil barons so they can stay together and prepare for the tournament.

 

[#1 Tah]

This is the place for things of interest that probably don't warrant a whole thread by itself.

They don't have to be long winded essays that one suspect is guilty of.

Alright, I brought this up a while ago and haven't got an answer yet.
Is there a trophy for Super Rugby yet?

 

[Aussie D]

Alright, I brought this up a while ago and haven't got an answer yet.
Is there a trophy for Super Rugby yet?

I thought you got an answer a couple of posts later. Yes, there is a trophy for Super rugby, has been since at least S12 days in 1996. That is why they have a presentation ceremony after the final siren and photos of the winning team holding it with confetti going off all around them. Maybe we don't see it enough here in Australia.

 

[rugbysmartarse]

hope Im not jumping the gun by presuming to interperet others questions, but I think #1 Tah is asking if there is a new trophy for the new format (not one that says S14 on it)

 

[chequebalance]

this came up somewhere on this site awhile ago, i think it was never found.

 

[matty_k]

I remember that. I think we found out that either last years or the one before that had dropped the 14 from the trophy.

 

[Zeno]

The S14 trophy was made in 2006 by a NZ jeweller. Fair bet it will go back to him for adjustment, if it hasn't already.