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Question on the scum halfs and the ruck.?
This came up in a conversation recently, where I realized I didn't know the answer.
Every forward knows that in a (defensive) rucking situation, you are not allowed to reach over and grab, bind onto, or generally mess with the opposing scrum half (or another player filling in that role) as he tries to pull the ball out of the scrum. This applies even if you are in a legal rucking situation -- entering through the gate and all that. But could someone refer me to the particular law (probably part of Law 16?) which forbids that play.
And yet, if he has a hand on the ball but hasn't pulled it out, he is still off-limits.
Andrew: the link works fine on my machine -- I suspect it must be your computer.
2 Answers
- AndrewLv 69 years agoFavorite Answer
Apparently the IRB law site is still down (that makes it about 18 months now), so I'll wing it.
I'm not sure that it is part of law 16, I think it's actually a general play principle, in that you are not allowed to hold a player who doesn't have the ball.
You are entitled to join the ruck, but, to look at it a different way, if the ruck ends while you are still bound, and a non ball carrying player runs past you (say to support the ball carrier), you can't grab and hold him. Same principle.
Yeah, hands on isn't out and you still can't grab him, the reason for that though is that the ball is still technically in the ruck, not in his possession (even though he's actually holding it) until he takes it out.
I still get 'page not found' on that link too, maybe it's my computer.
Source(s): rugby referee
