I must have been watching a different replay to the video ref who gave Samoa's try on Saturday. I'm normally pretty good at being impartial (I like to think!), but I was 100% sure that the Samoan effort wasn't a try (despite what Stuart Barnes was waffling on about), as the guy didn't have the ball under control at any point. It was a knock-on and a drop out to England. No doubt.So why was it given a try?
As someone who has banged on about how technology needs to be used more in sport, I found it somewhat embarrassing to realise that human error can still play a part with video analysis. But we can't let poor use of technology get in the way of using it as necessary to make crucial match-changing decisions....
5 comments:
I thought the whole control argument was a good one for disallowing the try, but Barnes (who I agree does waffle on a lot and thinks he has the most superior opinions) mentioned that the rules have changed from control to just touching the ball.
Depends what the precise wording of the law is really, I'm fairly sure there was a split second where the ball was touching his hand and the ground at the same time, and on that basis I'd have given it, but I must admit I don't know what the law is on that point.
I thought the law had changed from downward pressure to control, ie it would have been a try using previous laws but given the new ones shouldnt have been......
Not sure that it helps, but here is Law 22.1 GROUNDING THE BALL:
"There are two ways a player can ground the ball:
(a) Player touches the ground with the ball. A player grounds the ball by holding the ball and touching the ground with it, in in-goal. 'Holding' means holding in the hand or hands, or in the arm or arms. No downward pressure is required.
(b) Player presses down on the ball. A player grounds the ball when it is on the ground in the in-goal and the player presses down on it with a hand or hands, arm or arms, or the front of the player's body from waist to neck inclusive."
I presume this is up-to-date, it's taken from the IRB website. No mention of control and presumably for a try to be scored under (b) the ball has to have arrived in in-goal legally, ie not knocked on or thrown forward to get there.
I can't say I recollect all the details of Samoa's "try" now, but it appears that the ball either has to be held to score a try under (a), or to be pressed down to score a try under (b). As far as I remember, neither of these was the case.
I thought the replay showed that the hand wasn't on the ball at any point where it was also in contact with the ground, but would love to see it again to confirm - clearly Andy Mizner thinks it was!
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