Actually Ian the law says "held and brought to ground" (not brought to ground and held)
There is a difference, and if you have the wrong version in your mind you may well be dismissing genuine tackles
True, but the ball carrier must be held ALL THE WAY to the ground, therefore, when he is on the ground he still has to be held, even of momentarily. If he is released before he is brought to ground as per Law 15.3, then a tackle has not been made and the player is free to get up and carry on.
However, when a ball carrier is
already on the ground, a tackle cannot occur. That is why we have Law 14, to deal with two situations....
1. A loose ball on the ground and a player goes to ground to gather it, and
2. A ball carrier goes to ground without being tackled (e.g. slips over, is ankle tapped or pushed over etc)
Cipriani was not tackled, he was knocked off his feet when Black 13 attempted to tackle him, therefore, he was not held and brought to ground, therefore he was not tackled, therefore Law 14 applies, therefore no gate.
Black 13 started his approach to the group of players from the left, not the right, of your stills. Wind the video back a frame or two from the first still you've shown; you'll see that Black 13 first makes contact (but only with his hand and lower arm at best) with White 9 while his backside and feet are pointing towards the Black player just beyond the ruck. Your still is from after Black 13's shuffle round to get his feet behind Black's HMF. Black 13 does not enter from behind HMF; but probably only binds once his feet are behind HMF.
I think you have nailed it RobLev.
It's a 50/50 call, but I think that NO has pinged Conrad Smith (#13) for side entry.
Tough call but that is what I think has happened.
1. Black 13
clearly goes around behind the hindmost foot (Vito's) on the ground (remember you are viewing at an angle of about 30°.
2. He clearly aligns himself directly behind the ball.
3. Nigel Owens called
"ruck now" a fraction of a second BEFORE Black 13 joins so the side entry/gate is no longer an issue. The gate ONLY applies to the tackle (and there wasn't a tackle anyway)
4. Its a ruck so Black 13 is only required to join alongside a team mate or bind to an opponent (which he does) from an onside position (which he clearly does)
5. Finally, NO does not call or signal advantage when Black 13 joins, in fact he is more concerned with getting the Black "pillars" to take a step back, which to me, indicates that he is happy with everything else up to that point. When he did blow for the PK, he certainly did not point to Black 13.
If that is a side entry then I'll go "He". IMO, this is a very poor effort from NO. He obviously forgot that he called it a ruck when he said
"in the side, not thorough the gate".