Locke
Referees in America
- Joined
- Jan 23, 2022
- Messages
- 242
- Post Likes
- 148
- Current Referee grade:
- Level 10
I’m a newer ref and a simple situation in a game over the weekend has me stumped, but I suspect the answer is obvious and I am simply overlooking it.
Lower level men’s game. Red is in possession in blue territory, around the 22. Red player in possession kicks and chases, blue defender turns and chases as well. Blue player gets to the ball first, around the 5 meter line, and kicks the ball straight oout the back of in-goal, across his own dead ball line.
I took a second to decide what the restart should be, couldn’t come up with a confident decision internally, and announced the restart would be a goal line drop out, hoping player uncertainty around the new law trial would prevent any complaints about the call.
Now, despite an honest attempt to find what I expected to be a clear and simple answer in the good book, I can’t seem to find any mention of the situation. Law 21.11 clearly covers when a team kicks over their opponent’s dead ball line but I have found nothing referencing a team kicking over their own dead ball line. The table in law 19.1 says that if “the ball is taken into in-goal by the defending team and made dead,” play restarts with a 5-meter scrum to the attacking team. Based on this principle, I assume this is the correct call for my situation instead of the goal line drop out I awarded, but I don’t feel the law I quoted actually covers the situation I encountered because I don’t think kicking falls under the law’s normal use of a player “taking” the ball somewhere.
Now that I have written too many words, can someone kindly direct me to the law that I am not finding that covers this simple situation?
Lower level men’s game. Red is in possession in blue territory, around the 22. Red player in possession kicks and chases, blue defender turns and chases as well. Blue player gets to the ball first, around the 5 meter line, and kicks the ball straight oout the back of in-goal, across his own dead ball line.
I took a second to decide what the restart should be, couldn’t come up with a confident decision internally, and announced the restart would be a goal line drop out, hoping player uncertainty around the new law trial would prevent any complaints about the call.
Now, despite an honest attempt to find what I expected to be a clear and simple answer in the good book, I can’t seem to find any mention of the situation. Law 21.11 clearly covers when a team kicks over their opponent’s dead ball line but I have found nothing referencing a team kicking over their own dead ball line. The table in law 19.1 says that if “the ball is taken into in-goal by the defending team and made dead,” play restarts with a 5-meter scrum to the attacking team. Based on this principle, I assume this is the correct call for my situation instead of the goal line drop out I awarded, but I don’t feel the law I quoted actually covers the situation I encountered because I don’t think kicking falls under the law’s normal use of a player “taking” the ball somewhere.
Now that I have written too many words, can someone kindly direct me to the law that I am not finding that covers this simple situation?